Post Office Network
Dail Éireann — 2026-06-09
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Gary Gannon (SD), Dublin Central

I will speak to the Minister of State in his own capacity. He is an Independent who represents the constituency of Galway West. When he envisioned himself becoming a Minister of State, did he imagine he would be standing in the Chamber defending the closure of local postal services? I appreciate that my constituency and his are very different, but I imagine some of the community needs are the same. The older population in my community of Drumcondra and Glasnevin rely on their post office. When I am told that An Post is a commercial State entity, what does that actually mean? Some State entities do not need to be run for profit. They could also be run for community gain. What we are losing through this erosion of community infrastructure, not only in Dublin Central and Drumcondra, is that community itself. I ask Deputy Grealish to remember why he became an Independent, chose to get involved in politics and became a Minister of State and to stand up for genuine public services such as the post office. I do not for one second doubt he appreciates the need for this type of infrastructure as much as I do. Now that he is sitting in that chair, I ask him to become a custodian of the issue and stand up for this infrastructure. It does not have to be a massive post office. It can be a small postal collection service with other community infrastructure like childcare facilities or anything. Let us show a bit of innovation rather than selling the service off to a private fund, which will be a loss to the community. I would imagine the Minister of State's belief system would go against that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-06-09/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-09-14T01:01:05+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-06-09