Post offices to allow electronic payments
However, Mr Brennan also repeated his determination to press ahead with plans to increase the number of benefits paid by electronic means. The minister claimed the switch towards the electronic payment of social welfare monies to customers was “irreversible.”
He explained many people were now looking for payments to be made in this manner, while there were also considerations about efficiency and security.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland yesterday, Mr Brennan reassured operators of the 1,400 sub-post offices around the country that it was not his intention to dispense with their services but to provide customers with choice.
He said the obvious solution was further investment by An Post so that people could operate accounts through their post office.
Around 60% of the one million social welfare payments made each week are collected through the post office network. However, the number of people expressing a preference for automatic payment to a bank account is growing fast.
Communications Minister Noel Dempsey is due to address the IPU annual conference in Castlebar, Co Mayo, this weekend, where he is expected to face demands for An Post funding to allow such payments through the post office network.
Yesterday, IPU general secretary John Kane welcomed Mr Brennan’s commitment as a sign of the Government’s “goodwill.”
“It is now a question of An Post and the Minister for Communications to deliver the necessary technology,” said Mr Kane.
Mr Kane said 400 sub-post offices were operating on a manual basis.
