Rose Conway-Walsh on saving local post offices and funding
Rose Conway-Walsh welcomes the legislation delivering the 15 million announced in January and urges further government action to protect the national post office network. She highlights recent closures, the impact on rural communities and calls for post offices to be recognised and funded as essential public infrastructure.
Rose Conway-Walsh opens by commending post office owners and welcoming the 15 million funding package announced in January. She stresses the vital public services post offices provide, from pensions and social welfare to banking and bill payments.
She warns the network continues to shrink, noting over 250 closures in the last decade and the recent loss of Gweesalia post office in Mayo. Residents now face 10-20 kilometre journeys to access basic services, creating real barriers for elderly people, those with disabilities and those without reliable transport.
Conway-Walsh calls for a renewed government commitment: expand the range of services available through post offices, ensure fair remuneration for postmasters and invest in the long-term sustainability of the network. She contrasts frontline postmasters' role with a reported CEO salary to underline the imbalance.
Throughout the address she thanks postmasters and postmistresses for their service to communities, urging that their importance be reflected in funding and policy decisions to secure the future of the network.
Funding welcomed and concerns flagged
Rose Conway-Walsh opens by commending post office owners and welcoming the 15 million funding package announced in January. She stresses the vital public services post offices provide, from pensions and social welfare to banking and bill payments.
Local impact of closures
She warns the network continues to shrink, noting over 250 closures in the last decade and the recent loss of Gweesalia post office in Mayo. Residents now face 10-20 kilometre journeys to access basic services, creating real barriers for elderly people, those with disabilities and those without reliable transport.
Policy demands and recommendations
Conway-Walsh calls for a renewed government commitment: expand the range of services available through post offices, ensure fair remuneration for postmasters and invest in the long-term sustainability of the network. She contrasts frontline postmasters' role with a reported CEO salary to underline the imbalance.
Acknowledgement to postmasters
Throughout the address she thanks postmasters and postmistresses for their service to communities, urging that their importance be reflected in funding and policy decisions to secure the future of the network.
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Transcript
I welcome this legislation obviously that gives effect to the 15 million that was announced earlier in in January and I do want to commend all the post offices and thank all the post office owners who who communicated with me at the time and the ones that I met in trying to get this extra funding I think it is vital but we all know that our post offices are far more than just a place to send letters and collect parcels they provide essential public services at the very heart of our communities where people go to access pensions, social welfare payments, banking service and to pay their bills and a whole lot more for many people particularly the elderly and those living alone with disabilities and those without reliable transport the local post office is an absolute lifeline from them and as you say in your in your opening statement Minister the strength of post offices is that it the post office brand is that it reaches every part of the country but unfortunately it no longer does because we continue to see the network diminish with more than 250 post office closures over the last decade. Last month's closure of Guisala post office in Arras is the most recent example in Mayo. The people of Guisala must now travel 10 kilometers to Bangor Arras or almost 20 kilometers to Bailiwiridh to access services that were once available at the heart of our own community but for those distances represent a real barrier to essential services and we clearly need to see a renewed commitment from government to invest in our post office network. Post offices should be recognized as the essential public infrastructure and funded accordingly by expanding the range of government and financial services available through post offices ensuring fair remuneration for postmasters and mistresses and investing in the long-term sustainability of the network we can secure the future. It's incredibly, it's supported, it's reported Minister that the CEO from Post will earn a base salary of 285,000 for his first year and then we compare it against what is paid to all of the postmasters and postmistresses around the country. I really want to come out, I want to take this opportunity to really thank them for the service that they've given to their communities and that they have given to this country over the years.