I am glad to get the opportunity to talk about post offices. First of all, I thank the Minister of State, Deputy Charlie McConalogue, and the Government for giving them financial assistance this year because they do need it. Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network. I am sad to think that so many post offices have closed around us over the years. I remember the previous postmasters in Kilgarvan, Denis P. O'Sullivan and his brother John O'Sullivan. Before them were Bridie and James Cronin. She used to send her brother out with the telegrams. My uncles told me a story - all of them are long passed - that they met him one day going up the road with a telegram. He asked them if he had much further to go. They asked him where he was going and he told them to mind their own business and tell him how far he had to go. That is how trusted, secretive and dependable the people who work for the post office are. They retain the confidence of the people and that is why. At the present time in Kilgarvan, we have a great operator. He has been there for many years now and he is a most reliable person, Padraig Sweeney, and we are proud to have him running and operating the post office in Kilgarvan. We have lost post offices, like I said, in Clonkeen, Gneevgullia, Headfort, Blackwater Bridge and different places. Invariably, they were at the centre of each locality. If the post office is not there, a place loses its identity. We are in trouble now with so many shops closing in rural areas. In many rural villages, there is nothing left but the post office. We hope that we will retain the post offices because as has been said here, the post office, the school and the GAA club are so vital for retaining the identity of parishes throughout the length and breadth of rural Ireland. We hope we will retain the post offices in Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk. They are the nearest ones to me at the present time and we appreciate the great work they do. The Government, however, should advise people on social welfare payments more to draw their payments through the post office rather than going to the bank. Over the years, we have had enough done for the banks. Payments should always be directed to the post office because it is on each transaction the post office gets paid and to ensure business is kept in them, we should do as much transactions as we can in the post offices. People should not be sent elsewhere to bigger towns because there are no longer banks in villages and it is very important for people to meet. Social interaction is so important with people. People are becoming very lonely in rural places because they do not meet as much as they used to at the creamery, the shop or the pub. In tougher times, we had post offices everywhere and a Garda station. We do not have a Garda station in Kilgarvan now. Many parishes do not. We had a doctor's surgery in every parish and a social welfare office. There were several small schools in a parish but in the late fifties, they directed the smaller schools to close and sent them to a central school. That was a very sad thing and it hurts me at times when I see people in areas passing their own small, local school and going into a bigger school in town. We must try to retain what we have and what we had. The school in the locality is very important to retain the identity of that locality. Then there are the pubs and shops, as we all know. In Kilgarvan at one time, we had 26 shops. Now we have just two. That is replicated throughout many parishes in Kerry. Even Gneevgullia does not have a shop. The last place to close was the post office and the shop that went along with the post office. It is so important to subsidise post offices or give them an opportunity to remain open. To remain open, they must be profitable for the owners because there are a lot of costs and overheads. There are so many different things. The one thing that is hitting every kind of an outlet at the present time is rates and commercial rates. It is sad to think that there are shops closing all over County Kerry, including in Killarney at the present time. It has been told to me that the cost of commercial rates has gone up since the rates review. The cost of paying the rates has gone way up. It is hurting and causing businesses to close. The Government must recognise this and we, the Members, must highlight it and bring it forward to the Government here because maybe it is not known as much as we elected Members know about it as we are on the road every day and know what the problems are. We must look at the rates and how they are applied and charged for many businesses. Many businesses are now afraid to open their doors because they will be liable for a rates bill from that minute onwards. I again thank the Minister of State for recognising the post offices and ensuring they keep going for the present time. Like I said to him, we must ensure more business is directed through the post office to ensure its viability. We appreciate the parcel service it has at the present time. It is second to none. There is stuff coming out of vans every day coming to our door and it is the same right through the parish, including on Saturday. It is a great service and each and every one of us most do our utmost, and it is incumbent on us, to ensure we deal with the post offices, especially for that great service as well. It means so much in a rural community where people are out on a limb and where it is so far away to go to the bigger towns. When you talk about going to the city of Cork, it is a day's work to go to and come from there, if you were to do business that far away. I thank the Minister of State for this great effort.

Sentiment score: 0.14