I have been listening to the debate. I am now the third TD from the Dublin Mid-West constituency to speak on An Post in the past few minutes. We are all on the same page in the area. There is a bit of an issue around the delivery of services in the area. In Dublin in the past ten years alone, 21 post offices have closed. In addition to the closure of post offices, there has also been a poorer standard for the delivery of post. I will give a couple of examples. I was contacted by a resident of Balgaddy in my constituency about not receiving post. I contacted An Post and was informed that there was no particular issue in Balgaddy. I sent a response to my constituent by post. Guess what? My constituent never received it. That tells me straight away that there is an issue. A gentleman in Fettercairn contacted me with the same problem. He said he was not receiving his post in a timely manner. He said he had seen a big decrease in services. I again contacted An Post. In its response, it stated that it was possible that issues such as sickness or absence from work were leading to a delay in delivery services. An Post needs to have a contingency plan when something like that happens. At the moment, not having a sickness absence plan is leading to people not getting or going to vital medical appointments. Another thing missing in An Post is forward planning. Clonburris is a new development in our area and a part of it is an area called Seven Mills. There are going to be over 8,000 homes across the development. A significant number have been tenanted. However, to date no dedicated post person has been assigned by An Post to deliver packages and letters to people living in Seven Mills. That is leading to a hit-and-miss service for them. The proposals for the Clonburris development passed in 2019. I was on the council at the time. Surely An Post knew it was coming. It should have had something in place to ensure the service was not lacking. A number of my family members and friends work directly for An Post, whether in sorting offices or delivering post around the area. They have told me that there have been a few changes in how deliveries are being arranged in the sorting office and being issued to postmen and postwomen. They felt they were not consulted about the changes. Because they were not consulted, it has affected the delivery of post. Excuse the pun, but this needs to be addressed.

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