What planet are the Ministers on? Is that really the best they can come up with? The devastating impact of post office closures on all communities, rural and urban, is leaving residents without access to essential financial, social and State services. These are important social services that should be provided elsewhere but are only available in the post office and from that network. What we are saying on this side of the House aligns with the long-standing warnings not just from Sinn Féin, but from the Irish Postmasters' Union and many other people about the systemic failure of successive Governments over decades to address the decline of our office network. Some 257 post offices have closed over the past ten years. That is one per fortnight for the past decade that Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael have been in power based on figures my colleague Deputy Cullinane received last year. That is eight in my own County Waterford. The Minister of State might be interested to know that is 15 in the past ten years in County Kerry - 14 rural and one urban.
Sentiment score: 0.02
The Government's hands-off approach is a betrayal of rural Ireland. Post offices are the heartbeat of communities, providing lifelines for older people, small businesses and families. Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael, backed up by the Healy-Rae and Lowry Independents, have stood by as that network collapses, refusing to implement solutions put forward by the IPU, Sinn Féin and others. It is great to come in here with nostalgia and twee stories and talk about how, if communities only used their post office more, they might be open. However, the reality is that it is not viable any longer under An Post's new contract for new postmasters to take up the business. It is closure by stealth, and it is utterly dishonest to come into this House and pretend otherwise. The current An Post system fails to attract new postmasters, it fails to keep them in their jobs and it leads to permanent closures when somebody retires. We want to introduce a public service mandate with State investment to modernise contracts, expand services like banking and digital hubs and incentivise new postmasters. That is what we need. That is what a modern, vibrant, living post office looks like. It is encouraging new entrants in and keeping them there. Ba é an oifig an phoist áitiúil an tseirbhís Stáit dheireanach a bhí ar fáil i mo cheantar féin i nGaeltacht na nDéise. Dúnadh an bhliain seo caite é nuair a d'éirigh an postmistress as a post. Ní raibh an Rialtas, an Roinn nó aon Roinn Stáit sásta aon rud a dhéanamh chun duine nua a mhealladh isteach. The last front-facing, public-facing State service in my community, a Gaeltacht community in west Waterford in An Rinn, closed last year because the postmistress who had given decades of service to the community was retiring, as she was entitled to do. It did not make financial sense for anybody to take up that contract and I raised this with Government many times last year. They would have lost money in the bargain. That is the problem. Twee stories and appeals to nostalgia are not going to cut it. We need action, and we need the Government to wake up and smell the coffee on this issue.
Sentiment score: 0.02
Hear, hear.
Sentiment score: 0.00
The Minister took a portion of time there.
Sentiment score: 0.00