Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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113. To ask the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment further to Parliamentary Question Nos. 175, 176, 177, 178, 196, 200, 202 and 203 of 24t November 2020, his views on changing the long-standing Government policy that postal services will not be directly subsidised by the Government to provide funding for post offices which perform vital economic and social functions in rural areas; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41374/20]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party)
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I am aware of the importance of maintaining a post office network in our society.  However I also know that the serious decline in mail volumes and the impact of Covid-19 on footfall through post offices has had a severe impact on the postal network and the revenue being generated for postmasters.

A lot of work has been done over the past few years to develop the network and this has had a positive effect for both postmasters and customers. This momentum needs to be maintained and if An Post, the postmasters and Government work together we can ensure that the network can emerge as a central hub for a wide variety of valuable community-focused services.

What we are doing now is working with An Post  to investigate the scope to channel additional services through the network.  As with any business the post office needs develop commercial strategies to enable it to grow and maintain its relevance for its users.

In the circumstances, there are no proposals to introduce a Government funded subsidy for the post office network.