Minister ‘throwing in the towel’ on post offices

A Government turf war has erupted into a full-scale public spat after Communications Minister Denis Naughten accused junior minister Michael Ring of “throwing in the towel” on the survival of post offices.

Tensions in Government came to a head yesterday when Mr Naughten, who is now resuming responsibility for post offices, said Mr Ring had been given power over the network last July when An Post was transferred to the Department of Rural Affairs.

Mr Ring hit out at the comments and instead claimed Mr Naughten had tried to pass off his dirty work. He said he had “never thrown in the towel on any issue”.

It comes as postmasters prepare to protest outside Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s Castlebar office at 12 noon today.

They are demanding Mr Kenny resign unless he can provide leadership in securing the future of the post office network.

In a pointed attack on the Independent Roscommon TD, Mr Ring said: “I am not like these Independents shirking their responsibility and not doing what they are elected to do.

“He is Minister for Communications, he has statutory responsibility for An Post. I did not have statuary responsibility, he knows it.

“Denis Naughten has statutory authority for An Post and he was trying to throw up the dirty work to me. but I wasn’t having that,” said Mr Ring.

The spat follows a prolonged disagreement over which department should have responsibility for the post office network.

Mr Ring was last year asked to complete a report into the future of post offices. Last month, he offloaded responsibility for An Post back to Mr Naughten’s department.

Mr Naughten, a former Fine Gael TD, said: “Michael Ring threw in the towel on this issue. It’s an issue that I have been dealing with for many years as a rural TD.

“Now that responsibility is being transferred back to me, I am quite happy to take it.”