This plan must be stamped out, post haste

The recent attempts by this government to try to move the collection of welfare payments from the post office to the banks represents nothing less than a scandal.

If the Department of Social Protection is allowed to force the 51% of people who receive their payments from their local post office into a situation where they are paid directly into a bank account as much as 557 local post offices could close.

Brian McGann, general secretary of the Irish Postmaster Union (IPU), speaking at a rally outside the Dáil, described how the Department was actively helping to drive business out of the post offices and into the hands of the banks.