Mr. Sean Martin:

I wish to answer some of the questions asked by Deputies Harrington and Colreavy. It is important to put on record that the postmasters are prepared to deliver social welfare payments in whatever form the Government wants, electronic or otherwise. We are prepared to work with the company, An Post, to ensure that we will offer electronically operated systems through the post office. As Mr. McGann alluded to, the difficulty we have is that the social welfare report stated that the Department wants to go from 47% down to 22%. That is a reduction of 25% of our business that the Government wants to transfer through the bank. If that happened it would decimate post offices. As we have all said, the bedrock of the post office is the social welfare contract. Unless we can continue the social welfare contract at its current level then we will not be able to sustain the network. Grant Thornton also reports in its independent report that it will be no less costly to deliver social welfare electronically through the post office than is presently being delivered. That means there will be no cost savings for the Government in terms of electronic delivery.

It is important that Deputy Colreavy understands what the amended Fine Gael motion stated, which was stated by the Government Department last night. It states that it wishes to debate "the role of An Post, as a commercial State company, to provide a nationwide retail network of economically sustainable post offices". That is the most important part. My colleague, Mr. McGann, alluded to the fact that 48% of the network does 11% of the business. That means that 48% of the network is unsustainable and is not economically viable. The Government has now told us to get rid of the 48% of the uneconomical post offices, run the business through the remainder of the network and let it set up an alternative network through Tesco or any other operation that wants to do the business, to the detriment of rural communities and societies. That is not what we, as postmasters, want for our communities. We want to sustain our communities and deliver Government front office services whatever way the Government wants us to do so. We are not here to stop progress. We are here to deliver on whatever the Government wants to deliver as front office through our network - electronic or otherwise.