The programme for Government contains commitments to rural communities and refers to the post office network in particular. However, there does not seem to have been any serious attempt by the Government, particularly in recent weeks, to address damning reports on the closure of post offices. Three years ago the then Government promised a whole-of-Government report on the post office network in the face of the local elections but nothing has been done since. Does the Government have a strategic policy on maintaining the post office network?

Deputy Eugene Murphy, on the same issue.

For four months I have questioned the Taoiseach and the Tánaiste on the status of the commitments in the programme for Government relating to post offices. In an article in The Irish Times yesterday, Pat Leahy stated that the Minister of State at the Department of Arts, Heritage, Regional, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs, Deputy Ring, had transferred responsibility for post offices over to the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten. What is going on as the post office network falls down around us? Is this a deliberate policy by the Government? Could we have an honest, direct answer today as to where we stand with regard to post offices?

The Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment, Deputy Naughten, has clear responsibility for An Post. That has been confirmed this week in government but that does not mean that other useful work is not being undertaken to strengthen our post office network. The Minister of State, Deputy Ring, undertook work to look at models that could be developed that would help to bolster the long-term future of the post office network. He has come forward with proposals and I understand that he is supporting the possibility of pilot schemes to test some of the approaches. A lot of work is being done to try to protect the post office network. The issue cannot be solved simply within the narrow remit of the post. It is also about finding new services that can be transmitted, across all of Government, through the postal network. Those models have to be tested within the context of the oversight of the Minister for Communications, Climate Action and Environment of the specific operations of An Post.