The local post office is far more than just a place to send letters. In towns and villages across Ireland, the post office is the lifeline for communities. For many older people, those living alone and especially for people in rural communities, the post office is where the pension is collected, bills are paid and where the friendly face might be the only social contact somebody has that day. It provides vital access to cash and State services in communities. Despite that enormous social and economic value, however, successive Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael Governments have allowed this network to steadily decline. In the past decade, 257 post offices have closed across the State. That is a post office closure every fortnight. Rural communities have, as always under those parties, been the worst hit. Some 11 post offices have closed in my constituency of Cavan-Monaghan in the past ten years alone. These closures did not happen by accident, and they are certainly not the fault of the people who live in their communities. They are the result of political choices, a failure to properly invest in the network and a decision by Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael to support the EU postal service directive, which actually prevents Government from recognising post offices as essential public infrastructure. Sinn Féin believes that the decline can be reversed, however. We are calling for a long-term government funding programme to secure the post office network, including investment needed to keep rural post offices closed. Crucially, we need to expand the services through post offices from banking and financial services to greater access to government services because here is the simple truth: Ministers talking the talk. How many services from each Department are actually provided from within the post office? If the Government really wanted to support our post offices, that would be the first move it would be making.

Sentiment score: 0.19

If we want to support our rural communities, we have to support the services, and the post office is the critical service among them.

Sentiment score: 0.53