I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Postal and Telecommunications Services (Amendment) Bill 2026. I am glad to support its passage. This is a short Bill with a single purpose. Section 1 raises the amount the Minister can make available to An Post for the post office network from €30 million to €105 million. That one change gives legal effect to the Government's decision, announced earlier this year, to provide €15 million each year until 2030. That amounts to €75 million in total and it builds on the €10 million per year provided from 2023 to 2025. That funding reached every contractor post office in the country. Behind the statutory ceiling stands something far more important, namely, the post office network itself. There are 951 post offices in Ireland, of which postmasters run 906 directly. According to An Post's sustainability report, up to 1 million customers walk through their doors every week. In 2024, the network carried out 82 million transactions. That is phenomenal. Almost 26 million of those were social welfare payments made on behalf of the State. Let us consider what those figures mean in practice. They mean a pensioner collecting their payment from someone who knows their name. They mean a carer paying bills through the household budget service. They mean a family buying a Leap card or lodging savings at one trusted counter. That is why I say the post office network is not simply a commercial channel. It is social infrastructure. For older people, people with disabilities and people who are not online and never will be, the post office is often the front door to the State. I see this in my constituency of Dún Laoghaire. Our post offices in Dún Laoghaire town, Blackrock, Sallynoggin and Ballybrack, to name but a few, serve some of the oldest populations in the country. When I meet older residents at my clinics, they do not talk about mail volumes or e-substitution. They talk about the counter they trust and the services and individuals they rely on. The value of this network runs far beyond the money the State invests in it. When a post office anchors a main street or a village, footfall follows, local shops benefit, older residents, in particular, keep a reason to come into town, isolation is reduced and community is sustained. No line in any set of accounts captures that return, but every community in Ireland benefits from and knows that real return. It is important, though, that we acknowledge the pressures on the system. Having met with the Irish Postmasters' Union and read its report, transaction volumes and contractual earnings for postmasters have continued to decline since 2020, through a period of 15% inflation and a 30% increase in the minimum wage. The previous funding slowed the contraction of the network, but it did not stop the underlying trend. That is exactly why this Bill matters, and the funding model behind it matters even more. I welcome the principles the Government has agreed for that model. Access will be maintained across urban and rural Ireland. Funding will reflect the isolation and sustainability of each post office, and a minimum revenue threshold will apply. Offices on our islands and in our Gaeltacht areas will also be recognised for what they are, and that is essential. Members should look at what is happening elsewhere. On 30 December last, PostNord delivered its final letter in Denmark, ending four centuries of state letter delivery after letter volumes fell by more than 90%. Other countries are cutting delivery days and closing counters. The UK is also selling off its postal network. In comparison, we are in a totally different space in this House and country, and that has to be recognised. While things have to change in order to maintain the network and keep it viable, we are in a different situation from many of our European counterparts and neighbouring jurisdictions. A service that reaches every community of 500 people or more is worth defending, precisely when others are walking away. I will finish with one specific ask. Funding sustains the network and new business strengthens it. An Post has shown what it can do with the likes of An Post Money, parcels and financial services. I ask the Minister of State to bring forward, before the end of this year, a plan to channel additional Government services through the post office network, so that the network earns as well as receives. That is how we make this €75 million an investment in growth, not a subsidy for decline. I know of the Minister of State's personal commitment to the post office network, having met the postmasters' union and others numerous times. It is essential that we keep the focus on sustainability and the retention of our post office network as much as possible. I know the Minister of State wants to see that in every rural town, the Gaeltacht areas and urban areas.

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