Postal and Telecommunications Services (Amendment) Bill 2026 [Certified Money Bill]: Second Stage Seanad Éireann — 2026-07-14 ============================================================ Victor Boyhan (IND), Agricultural Panel I wish the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan, well and wish him a speedy recovery. I thank him for his input on this work. He has championed rural communities. He represents a constituency that has both urban and rural areas. The significance of the post offices is known to us all. Any of us who has contacts with post offices, be they urban or rural, knows the importance of them. They are an important point of contact. Most people who run post offices have been long established there. Many of them run them in combination with local enterprises or local businesses, be it shops, hardware or pubs. I can think of loads of rural post offices in Meath and Kildare alone that are run on the fringes with other successful businesses. What is most important is that they offer a confidential service. They offer a listening service and they are more than just a transactional service. They are there looking out for people. Members of communities like to go there and I have always been a strong advocate for the post office network, so I support anything that supports the post office network. There is potential for innovation and synergies and co-operation. I am always struck as to why the local credit unions cannot operate out of the same building as local post offices or information hubs or community hubs. There are potential synergies that could be looked at in terms of keeping the core service and that connection within communities. I wish the legislation well. It will have our whole support and I understand that we will be doing all Stages of the Bill today, so it will be put through today. I wish the Minister of State well with the responsibility of the passage of this Bill today. It has my full support. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-07-14/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-27T06:52:15+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-07-14