For many years, I have listened carefully to the submissions made by Sean Martin. I have read each submission with great care because I believe in the post office network. I am a supporter of that network and of the postmasters and postmistresses and the work they do throughout the country. However, in those years, I have also witnessed the closure of many post offices throughout the country, particularly those in villages and towns that are suffering from a decline in population or a decline in local services. We cannot turn a blind eye to this. When people lose a post office, they lose a critical part of their social infrastructure, a service and a building where they can go and meet neighbours and friends as they transact what are small transactions, generally, in the post office. They can also share the news of the day, or share their views on what could or could not be done with the post office network itself. People have opinions on it, and they want their post office to stay in place. This investment will ensure a continuation for a further number of years. However, the time has come when the Government must sit down with the union and discuss just how it wants to see the post offices develop, particularly in rural Ireland. If we are making the investment, if we are giving the support, while we might look at it as a subsidy, we should also be looking at it as an investment in rural Ireland. I know urban centres, like Deputy Devlin's area, will have the same type of benefits. If we look at it in that way, we might agree on a structure and a worthwhile strategy or plan, so the investment will give a yield not just for the post office network but also give a yield for the Government of the day. I think of places like, for example, the post office on the High Street in Kilkenny city, which is a building that attracts quite a lot of business in its role in the post office network. However, it is also a building that should be invested in by a combination of the Government and the union contributing to a strategy that would see buildings like this enhanced and making a greater contribution to Kilkenny city, in this case, and then to look beyond that and see what investment can take place in all of the other villages and towns that either had a post office or still have one but could do with investment. If we do not do that, then what we are doing today by giving more money to the post office network will just see that network slowly grind to a halt. It will be a slow death. This affects not just the customers. It affects the staff, the families and all those involved in post offices. It means there is no future that will be seen by them as keeping them employed. We have to give that future to them. We have to understand the trust that they have created over generations, in some cases, with local communities and local families. It is a trust that allows the public to go and make their payments through the post office, deal with their part-payments to cover bills for services every week, and feel comfortable in doing it. I would make the point that not everyone is IT-literate. People like to have a safe, private place that they can trust, where they do not need to be IT-literate, and where they can come in and do their business in an open fashion. We need to recognise that. We also need to recognise that not everybody can use technology to speak to someone. Only this morning, I was talking to people in a company providing services. They did not have a clue where I was, and I did not have a clue where they were. There was no personal connection, no face-to-face meeting - there was nothing. I immediately thought of those people who are marginalised for one reason or another, who cannot engage with technology. The post office allows all of those people, in their own way, to interact with a person, get their problem solved and do it, as I said, with trust and in a place they are familiar with. I welcome the money that is going to be provided on top of what is already there. It is a substantial amount of money. However, if we put our minds to it, as a Government, then a lot more can be achieved, not just for the network but for society generally and for communities that need the type of interaction that a post office offers. We cannot ignore the drop in the number of post offices. We need to look at that, and we need to look at how society is developing. Footfall is all-important. If you lose your post office, you perhaps might lose your pub or your local shop. That is a detrimental step. I encourage the Minister to have a look at the overall workings of the post office and to fund it appropriately.

Sentiment score: 0.16