Communications Committee calls for enhanced role for Post Office network in delivery of government services

26 March 2013

This may include developing facilities across the 1150 post offices nationwide for the processing of motor tax renewals and hospital charges as well as water charges, property tax, business rates, rents and other Government payment services. In particular, the Committee recommends that the Post Office network be utilised as part of the Government’s financial inclusion strategy to deliver basic payment accounts to the ‘unbanked’. These recommendations are included in the ‘Report on Promoting a Sustainable Future for the Post Office Network’, launched this afternoon 26 March.

The Report is based on hearings and a public consultation hosted by the Committee in 2012, with the aim of charting a sustainable future for Ireland’s post office network.

Other recommendations include that:

• the sharing of facilities with other community service providers to minimise overhead costs and maintain accessibility, given the social benefit of providing advice and face to face contact for rural communities in particular;
• the Government recognises that any successful bidder for Department of Social Protection (and, at a later date, NTMA) contracts currently held by the post office network, acknowledge and honour this social responsibility by providing as widespread and comprehensive a service as is currently provided by An Post.
• An Post clarify and make public the criteria it uses to establish the viability of post offices. In addition, An Post should introduce an ‘amber light’ warning system, which would give communities advanced warning that their post office may be vulnerable to closure and engage in consultation with communities before making any final decision regarding closures.

Committee Chairman Tom Hayes TD says: “The post office network, with its unrivalled reach across the nation, has many competitive advantages which could lead to an expansion in the products and services it provides. However, as a Committee, we believe that the Post Office is about much more than the services it provides. For many people the Post Office is the first port of call when an individual seeks to engage with one of the various organs of State. Accordingly, we have prepared this report which focuses on a number of areas which would provide the best prospect for the retention of the maximum possible number of Post Offices, of which there are currently some 1,150.  

 “We hope that this report would provide a roadmap for how the sector might consolidate and, indeed, how that outcome might be supported by the State.  We thank both An Post and the Irish Postmasters’ Union for their attendance at public hearings in 2012 and the diverse range of interests who made submissions, from Age Action Ireland and the Senior Citizens’ Parliament to the banks and the Irish Farmers’ Association. Committee Members believe that this report makes a timely, common-sense and practical contribution to ensuring the sustainability of the post office network.”

A copy of the report, which includes wide-ranging recommendations, will be sent to the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources Pat Rabbitte TD.

Access a copy of the ‘Report on Promoting a Sustainable Future for the Post Office Network’: 

For further information please contact:
Paul Hand,
Communications Unit,
Houses of the Oireachtas,
Leinster House,
Dublin 2
P: +3531 618 4484
M: +353 87 694 9926

Committee Membership

Deputies
Michael Colreavy, Sinn Féin
Timmy Dooley, Fianna Fáil
Dessie Ellis, Sinn Féin
Terence Flanagan, Fine Gael
Tom Fleming, Independent
Noel Harrington, Fine Gael
Tom Hayes, Fine Gael (Chairman)
Seán Kenny, Labour
Eamonn Moloney, Labour
Michael Moynihan, Fianna Fáil
Patrick O’Donovan, Fine Gael
John O’Mahony, Fine Gael (Vice-Chairman)
Ann Phelan, Labour
Brian Walsh, Fine Gael
 
Senators
 Terry Brennan
 Sean D. Barrett
 Eamonn Coghlan
 Paschal Mooney
 Ned O’Sullivan
 John Whelan