Sinn Féin welcomes what is being done. We need to see this funding provided to post offices as quickly as possible. For many communities, this is too little, too late because in my part of the world and in much of rural Ireland, large numbers of post offices have closed down. It seems the only model An Post will work with is one where the post office moves into a supermarket in a large town. That is happening all over the country. It means there has to be a business that will provide footfall so people can make money in the post office. In Carrick-on-Shannon, the largest town in County Leitrim, the post office was to close down because the postmistress could not make enough money to ensure a sustainable future. She had to stop working and nobody else would take over the post office, which then had to move into a local supermarket. It seems that this model is being applied everywhere. It is particularly acute in cases where small post offices in rural areas cannot survive on their own. The payment per transaction model simply does not provide enough to make post offices sustainable and viable businesses. That needs to be recognised. The only way to reverse that is to put a base salary in place that postmistresses and postmasters can survive on, and then give them a payment per transaction. That is exactly what needs to happen. For many communities, the current position simply does not work. I know of areas where people, mainly pensioners collecting a pension, are travelling ten, 15 or 20 miles to find a post office whereas the post office used to be just down the road from them a few years previously. This is part of the neglect of rural areas, which have been left behind for far too long. What the Minister is doing here today is welcome but short-lived. What will happen after 2030? Where will we see progress after that? A lot of people are telling me this is too little, too late. Many communities feel left behind, and it is not only because of post offices. In many aspects of rural life people find that investment has not been made to sustain their communities and ensure there is a future for them. Most people who live in rural Ireland want to live there. People who may have had to travel to get education or work want to come back to raise their children and have them go to the school they went to and play for the football club they played for when they were growing up. They have that sense of place but it is being eroded as the services in rural areas are eroded. I am sure the same applies in the Minister of State's community. All of us have to work together to try to provide solutions to this. Unfortunately, the Government does not want to look at solutions. Basically, the Minister of State is delivering something that is too little, too late and does not go far enough. That has always been the problem. While the Bill is welcome, for many communities, it is failure that will continue to dominate in the future. People do not see any future in much of rural Ireland. Unless there is a place for them to live and there are services for them, they will not come back.

Sentiment score: 0.04