Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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67. To ask the Minister for Finance his plans to utilise post offices to provide additional banking services; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28646/18]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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Responsibility for An Post rests with my colleague, Minister Naughton. Accordingly, Minister Naughton and his Department are better placed to provide further information and detail on the financial services provided by the post offices.

However, in the context of the report on local public banking that has been prepared by my Department and the Department of Rural and Community Development, there has been consideration of the financial services already provided by An Post and the credit unions, particularly in regional and rural areas.

I understand that An Post provides transactional banking services for AIB, Ulster Bank and Danske Bank customers, with circa5 million transactions being undertaken in 2017, to a value of €1.5 billion. Additionally, there are a number of foreign exchange cash and card options at over 900 post office branches and An Post is Western Union’s largest agent in Ireland, facilitating foreign currency payments to and from over 200 countries for customers.

In 2017 An Post launched its Smart current account in the Irish market. An Post also offers Home, Motor, Life, Travel and Pet insurance through its wholly owned subsidiary One Direct, trading as Post Insurance, and is the main agent for State Savings products with in excess of €20 billion invested accounts and circa17% of household savings.

An Post is the main channel for cash distribution to customers of the Department of Employment Affairs and Social Protection, and offers services such as Household Budget, Post Office Savings Bank, and Billpay to these customers which ensures that many people continue to have access to financial services and are not financially excluded. Over the last three years An Post has been part of Personal Micro Credit Scheme (PMC) with the Irish League of Credit Unions, the Department of Employment and Social Protection and other Government agencies. To date, over 5,000 people have availed of a PMC loan with repayments of over €5 million been made.

My Department will continue to work with the Department of Communication, Climate Action and Environment to facilitate the future development of An Post’s provision of financial services.