First, I join with the Cathaoirleach in expressing my sympathies to the family of the late Liam Fitzgerald.

The Order of Business is No. 1, statements on balanced regional development, to be taken at 6 p.m. and to conclude at 8 p.m. if not previously concluded, with the time allocated to the opening remarks of the Minister not to exceed ten minutes, group spokespersons not to exceed ten minutes each, all other Senators not to exceed five minutes each and time may be shared, and the Minister to be given not less than ten minutes to reply to the debate.

We in the Fianna Fáil Party would like to express our sympathies to the family of former Oireachtas Member, Liam Fitzgerald. He was a very kind, affable and effective public representative. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam.

I also think it would be appropriate that the Seanad would extend its sympathies with regard to the Air India crash. Thankfully, it is not too often that we see aeroplane crashes of that magnitude but it was shocking to see 241 passengers killed, and also those who were in the nursing home on the ground.

Very sadly over the weekend, we were all shocked to hear the news that Minnesota state senator John Hoffman and his wife had been badly injured, and worse again, Minnesota state representative Melissa Hortman and her husband had been savagely killed in a very targeted and politically motivated assassination. It is important for this House to mark that and to say that we absolutely abhor any type of violence against anyone. There is something about one of our own being murdered. We saw that when two politicians in the UK were very sadly assassinated within a short period. Our deepest sympathies to all those affected, including family members and all they represented.

This morning, I was at Rathangan post office in County Kildare with Mr. Shane Dunne, the local postmaster, and Ms Sandra Tormey, the general secretary of the Irish Postmasters' Union. We discussed again the situation that local post offices find themselves in. It is generally not known that postmasters are not actually paid a salary; they are paid per transaction, and it is quite a minimal payment at that. Sadly, the number of transactions in our post offices is going down in the modern world but they provide such an incredible service. In many ways, they are the heartbeat of our communities. Certainly in my experience, with respect to Brendan Kelly, Marie Butler and John Normile in Newbridge post office and Shane and Connie Dunne in Rathangan, those who work in post offices provide photocopying services, fill in forms, send emails, etc., particularly for our older population.

It is important that we ask the Minister to come into this House to discuss the situation. I know we have all had meetings. I want to mention postmaster Tom O'Callaghan from Clare. Subventions are needed. We need a whole new way of looking at and funding our post office system. We must look at other areas that can be introduced, such as peace commissioner duties or post offices becoming the local points for tourism. Perhaps we could do more banking duties through our post offices.

I know we all support and endorse the work that is done in our local post offices. We need the Government to do more and the Minister to come to the House for a debate.