2026-05-20

We are here today to register our strong disapproval of the proposed move of an An Post sorting office from Edmondstown to Lucan across the city. This is an issue of serious concern across parties. As the Minister of State can see, there are three Deputies here from the constituency but I know the two other Deputies will have similar feelings about this. This sorting office serves people in Dublin South-West as well as Dublin Rathdown and there are Deputies and councillors in both constituencies who have serious concerns about this. This sorting office has been a prized local asset for decades. It is an issue as it is a public service in the area. People locally see this as a degradation of services in our area. In practical terms, it would be asking people from Rathfarnham, essentially, and that area to travel across the already congested M50 to pick up parcels in Lucan rather than being able to do it locally. The staff and the local people are really concerned about it. We have heard rumours. We have not heard anything formally from An Post about this yet. The Minister of State has written to me about it and said that this is still a proposal but we would like to get some facts and we would like a meeting with An Post. That is what I am asking for today.

I thank the Ceann Comhairle for selecting this Topical Issue matter, which should have included our colleague, Deputy Paul Murphy, as well. I ought to say that. The four non-officeholders in Dublin South West come together when there is an issue of serious concern to all of us, and this is one such issue of concern. It is to raise the reported proposal by An Post to close the sorting office at Edmondstown in my own parish and relocate its operations to a centralised hub in Grange Castle in Lucan. As the Minister of State knows, the proposal has caused significant concern across a wide area of south Dublin, including Rathfarnham, Knocklyon, Ballycullen, Ballyroan, Ballyboden, Butterfield and those areas. The Edmondstown facility currently provides reliable, accessible and community-focused services. It allows residents to easily collect missed deliveries and engage with a local service that is clearly valued and has employed a lot of local people historically. As was mentioned, the proposed location would require residents to travel across the M50 to Lucan simply to collect a parcel and for many, this is a significant and unreasonable burden. We have been contacted by constituents with no access to private transport or who may have significant needs and are not able to use public transport. Postal workers are also concerned about significantly longer commutes for them. Is the Minister of State aware of the plans? Has any impact assessment been carried out? What engagement has been taking place? Will he intervene to protect local services?

We know that An Post has a plan to relocate these sorting offices. It is not only Edmondstown. It is also talking about closing one in Tallaght and relocating the one in Churchtown, which is in Dublin 14, to Edmondstown. There is a demand in relation to the levels of parcels. It is at Christmas levels at the moment, and it is growing all the time. We accept that there needs to be efficiencies in relation to that but the distance involved is considerable. Travelling from Rathfarnham to Lucan is not straightforward, particularly given chronic traffic congestion across south and west Dublin. Second, public transport options in Rathfarnham and Lucan are limited and indirect for many residents, particularly older people and those with disabilities or those without access to a car. Collecting missed deliveries would become extremely difficult. Many of the people who are impacted by this would have to go the M50 route with all the challenges in relation to that. Part of the challenge is that we have not got the information from An Post of exactly what it is going to do and staff or local customers have not been informed either.

I thank Deputies Ahern, Lahart and Crowe, and Deputy Murphy as well, for bringing this matter to the Chamber and raising it with me. The Deputies will already be aware of the statutory structure of An Post. It is an independent commercial State body and makes its decisions in this regard. These decisions are operational in nature. I know Deputies are aware of that. As they have outlined, it is an important issue in their area and they are bringing it to the floor of the Dáil. They are seeking particular engagement with An Post. Coming out of this debate today, I will engage with An Post informing it of the concerns Deputies have raised on the floor of the Dáil as public representatives in the area and ask that the relevant management of An Post meet with them to discuss the matter. Obviously, whenever there is change such as this, it is really important there is engagement with the staff and the unions, which An Post has informed me is ongoing. It is really important that is the case but it is also appropriate in this case that it should meet with the Deputies, who have expressed concerns, to discuss the plan and where it is at and how everyone can be consulted and engaged with and that change is managed in a way that works for everyone. An Post has advised me that it is considering moving the An Post delivery office - not the post office but the delivery office - from Edmondstown, Dublin 16, to a new Dublin west delivery hub later this year. It has noted as well that it is in consultation with its union and staff and that the company will be working hard to ensure local customers are not disadvantaged. This work includes securing local post offices to enable customers to pick up missed mail. As noted, it is a matter for the company directly as opposed to the Government. Neither I nor the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, as the shareholders, are in a position to make these decisions. It is an operational matter for it. An Post has noted that it is consolidating its national network of local sorting offices, also known as delivery service units, DSUs, on the basis that it needs larger and purpose fitted premises to manage increased parcel volumes. It is also in the process of hiring and will be hiring 300 additional postmen and women across the country, some of whom will be working in this area to manage the massive growth that we are seeing in volumes. We are seeing a transformation in relation to postal services. Obviously, the number of letters and how people conduct their lives is changing. It is really important that An Post is in a position to be able to adapt and be at the forefront of that change, particularly being able to accommodate the demand in terms of parcels, online sales and business that is happening, and it has been. It is very much at the forefront of that and is doing a really good job. For it to be able to continue to be a strong company, serving the public of this country into the future, it is really important that we work with it in enabling it to be able to deal with that demand and work with all of its staff in a way that serves the public well. That does mean, I know, that in many parts of the country - I have the same in my county - they are having to change their sorting offices and to consolidate them into delivery and sorting offices which are capable of meeting that increased demand and the increased demand that will be there in the future. There has been a lot of change already in relation to this. I note the issues the Deputies have raised. I will facilitate and ask for a meeting with them. From the point of view of the Government, we want An Post to be strong and, in particular, we want its services to the public, whether in relation to letters or parcels, to be effective. We also want the post office network to be maintained. That is why the Government has increased funding to the post office network from €10 million to €15 million this year to make sure we can maintain a strong post office network in the midst of that change.

We all want to see a strong An Post, but it is important that I also recognise that it is not an entirely commercial body and that it does have a public service mandate as well. There is a lot of uncertainty around the area, whether it is staff or locals, about the future and we are getting a lot of our information second-hand. We would like to see the plan, to the extent that there is one. There are concerns about what we have heard, that collection points might be in local post offices from now on. They are located in SuperValu stores and so on, but they do not have the same opening hours as the sorting office would have. They would not be open before or after work. We would like an end to the uncertainty and to see the plan. We would like to meet with An Post, if the Minister of State can arrange that, please.

I welcome the fact that the Minister of State will do his best to facilitate engagement directly between An Post and the public representatives who have raised this matter. I also welcome the news about 300 additional postmen and postwomen, some of whom will be employed in the local area. That is really good news. As regards the talk about dispersing what Edmondstown sorting office does to other local post offices, we have lost Templeogue post office and we lost Rathfarnham post office. They were never replaced despite great efforts by local public representatives. As for the last remaining local post office in this area, in Ballyroan, I do not want to comment on it because I do not own or run it, but just from going in and out and engaging, I just wonder about its capacity to store material. I acknowledge that An Post is growing in terms of deliveries, but this is local, it is a service issue, it is about local people and it is about workers now potentially having to engage in much longer commutes and, certainly, older people and people with disabilities having to engage in cruel commutes just to collect parcels.

My only experience is going into the Tallaght sorting office, and I have never gone in without other people being there. There are always queues there, which highlights the fact that it is being used. We are told that there is a plan in place. We do not know what the plan is so we are looking for information about that plan. At the end of the day, we need to know where the parcels will go, if they are not delivered to households. A lot of people living in apartments cannot get access to their parcels and so on. Where do they have to go? What is proposed in relation to the location in Lucan is unsuitable. We are looking for a compromise on that. There is also the issue of staff. Most of the staff live locally and are from the locality, whether it is Edmondstown, Tallaght or some of the other areas. Again, this will move people, create extra traffic and so on. What is being talked about is unsuitable.

The most important engagement here will be between An Post and its staff in relation to the proposal and the management of that, and taking on board any concerns that are there. It is important that that continues and is detailed and respectful of everyone. The Deputies, as public representatives, are raising how this issue will impact on the wider public and the importance of staff engagement. I will request that a meeting be organised with them to discuss these issues further. We all know and accept, I think, that significant change is happening. It is important that An Post is in a position to respond to that, has the capacity to deal with it and is at the forefront of that change to ensure our commercial semi-State body is at the heart of the postal service and commercial delivery in the future, also because it has a public service remit. Considering how the public is served and considering letter delivering capacity, we need to continue to have a good postal letter service in the future. With An Post at the forefront of the online commercial side, it can also make sure that it will be in a position to provide the best possible letter delivery service because of the financial strength of the company. I thank the Deputies for raising this matter. I will certainly take it up and have that meeting facilitated. I hope, in terms of their input and particularly the ongoing appropriate engagement between An Post and the staff, that this is stepped out in a way that works for the staff and particularly for the public, whom we all want to see properly served in their local communities.