Naughten accuses Ring of ‘throwing in towel’ on An Post

A row has broken out between two Government Ministers after one accused the other of “throwing in the towel” on the future of An Post.

Minister of State for Rural Development Michael Ring was angered at what he saw was a deliberate slight from Minister for Communications Denis Naughten.

Mr Naughten alleged Mr Ring had "thrown in the towel" on the post office network. He was speaking on Today with Sean O'Rourke on RTÉ Radio on Monday. The Minister, who is an Independent TD for Roscommon-Galway, said the rural post office issue was something he was dealing with for a long time.

Asked what he meant by Mr Ring “throwing in the towel”, he said responsibility for the post office was sent to Heather Humphreys and her Department of Arts, Heritage, Gaeltacht and Rural Affairs last July, where Mr Ring was the Minister of State.

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Implying that not enough had been done, he said: “The idea was to rejuvenate and modernise it. Now that responsibility has been transferred back to me. I’m looking forward to it.”

In response Mr Ring told The Irish Times it was the second time in recent weeks that Mr Naughten had slighted him. He said he had never been given specific delegated statutory powers for the post offices.

Measures

He had asked Mr Naughten not to allow the price of a stamp to be increased until there was a full package of measures ready for presentation but Mr Naughten “couldn’t rush fast enough to give them the increase”, Mr Ring told RTÉ.

He also said that Mr Naughten had shirked responsibility, a reference to his departure from Fine Gael in 2011.

Mr Ring said: “It’s because I didn’t have statutory responsibility of An Post, I couldn’t make them decide on government policy. That has to be done by the Minister for Communications. That’s Denis Naughten. That’s Denis Naughten’s job.

“He’s like a lot of Independent Ministers , they’re trying to shirk their responsibilities. He has a responsibility. He has a statutory responsibility for An Post.   He’s the Minister that gave them the increase. He’s the Minister who brought the legislation through the Dáil. He’s the Minister that decided they were going to get the increase. Now who has the power – him or me?”

Earlier, Mr Naughten said that he believed there was potential for developing the services offered by local post offices.

He pointed to better banking services, building on the strong brand recognition of An Post, and benefitting from a “a van going to every single door five days a week”.

He would not comment on the current plans being developed for An Post by consultants McKinsey, or the suggestion that between 200 to 500 sub post offices may have to close.

He said he was quite happy to take on the challenge once the responsibility for the network was transferred back to his department.