I have three requests. First, I ask the Minister to shelve the recommendation that this £30 million contract be put out to tender. Second, I ask An Post to pay its staff a proper salary. Third, I ask An Post to postpone its plan to allow major supermarkets to sell stamps.
I support Deputy Enright and our purpose is to protect rural Ireland. If we lose the small post offices we will have lost another rural institution. We have lost our garda stations and our schools. If we lose the rural post offices, fewer and fewer people will wish to live in rural areas.
The Minister, who represents a rural constituency, must understand that if he proceeds with this proposal, small post offices will not survive; many already find survival difficult. Far from allowing them to close, he and other Ministers should seek ways to support small rural post offices. This could be done, for example, by allowing motor taxation payments to be made at post offices. All motor taxation in County Mayo, for example, must be made at a single office in Castlebar and people are forced to queue for long periods when paying their motor tax.
Sub-post masters and mistresses and their staff provide many social services. They assist people with filling forms and give advice on applications for benefits. The closure of small post offices would be yet another culture shock for rural Ireland. I ask the Minister to abandon this plan. Why should this contract be given to a bank which makes huge profits and does not give a service to rural areas. A bank has refused to provide even a travelling bank service in Achill. Why should they be given responsibility for a service which they will not manage properly? We have seen how badly banks have treated our people for many years.
Rural post offices, on the other hand, have done an excellent job but they will not survive if this business is taken from them. The Minister must ask the Minister for Public Enterprise to ensure that An Post pays its staff a decent salary and gives them more work to do.
An Post is considering doing deals with large supermarkets with regard to national lottery machines while the people of Kilmaine, Killa walla, Ballintubber to Aughleam in Belmullet – all thirty miles from their nearest National Lottery machine – have no access to machines locally. The Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs must do his duty but An Post also has a part to play.
Minister for Social, Community and Family Affairs (Mr. D. Ahern): I thank the two Deputies for raising this issue. This matter contains two distinct elements. The first is the contract under which my Department currently purchases payments delivery services from An Post. The second distinct but related element is the future of the post office network.
The payments contract to which I have referred is due to expire at the end of this year. Under EU law, large public sector contracts must go to tender. My Department is currently examining the various legal and other considerations which arise in this regard.
An Post is well aware that it will have to compete for this business, as indeed for other aspects of its business in the future. I have no doubt that, bearing in mind its experience and track record, it will compete very effectively for my Department's payments delivery business. Given the legal constraints imposed on me, it would be incorrect for me to say anything more on this issue.
With regard to the second issue, namely, the future of the post office network, my colleague, the Minister for Public Enterprise, has stated clearly the Government's policy in this area. There are no plans to close rural post offices – this needs to be said loudly and clearly. The Minister has been to the fore in encouraging An Post, and indeed other State companies, to be ready for the inevitable competition that is coming down the line, including e-commerce. This is not just about what might or might not be required under EU policies, it is a fact of commercial life in this competitive and changing world. Our ability to cope with this environment has been a significant factor in enabling this country to make huge economic and social strides in recent years.
My Department has had a successful relationship with An Post going back a long number of years. Let me put this in context. An Post is the dominant supplier of payment delivery services to my Department's customers. In 1998 some 46 million social welfare payments were cashed in post offices. This represents 80 per cent of all social welfare payments. The remaining 20 per cent of payments are delivered either by cheque or by direct transfer to customers' personal accounts. My Department is a customer of An Post. It exercises no supervisory or management role in this regard, as I have no doubt the Deputies are aware.
In 1992, following much discussion and analysis of An Post's counter services, my Department and An Post entered into a contract which provided the basis for a significant transfer of business from my Department to An Post. That contract reaches the end of its term in 1999. The contract paved the way for a major modernisation programme which involved the development and installation of state-of-the-art computer and telecommunications systems in post offices throughout the country. As part of this contract, my Department contributed £18 million to An Post for investment purposes.
Over recent years a number of organisations, both national and international, have been in contact with my Department offering alternative and competitive payment delivery systems. This reflects the development of the industry in response to customer choices and preferences. An Post has always acknowledged this – indeed the recent establishment of the e-commerce division in An Post is a good example of its awareness of new business opportunities through the use of new technologies. In this context An Post has to ensure that its services are both modern and attractive to customers and that its charges are kept in line with those of its competitors.
I wish to emphasise that my desire is that An Post, as a commercial service provider, should actively and dynamically keep pace with developments. It can do so by providing a range of modern, cost-effective payment options, thus enabling it compete effectively, win new business and meet the changing needs and aspirations of my Department's customers.
Quality of service and convenient access to payments have always been, and will continue to be, indispensable features of my Department's payments delivery systems. The attractiveness of any proposals for new means of payments delivery will be measured against these standards. I wish to give an absolute guarantee that my Department will require that our customers have convenient access to their payments at a nationwide network of outlets of at least the same size and scale as we use at present.
I take this opportunity to place on record my appreciation of the sterling service which An Post, through its staff throughout the country, have been providing for my customers. The company, through its staff, has already shown that it can successfully adapt and change. I am confident it will continue to meet the challenges presented by its rapidly evolving marketplace.
The Dáil adjourned at 11.15 p.m. until 10.30 a.m. on Thursday, 13 May 1999.
