Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for being late. I welcome the presentation by the Irish Postmasters Union, including the Grant Thornton report that has been circulated. An issue that arose last week at one of the briefings resonated with many people - it concerns how we can encourage people to avail of the existing post office service, rather than seeking increased electronic funds transfer. Our experience as public representatives includes filling out forms for people. A party colleague said it all in stating that when he first entered the Dáil the vast majority of people would gladly have received social welfare benefits over the post office counter. Now, however, social welfare recipients want to receive payments electronically through a bank. That will have an impact on the post office network. What suggestions does the Irish Postmasters Union have to encourage the public to avail of the post office network's services while they are still there? As Deputy Coffey said, putting 200 people into a hall when the post office sign has been taken off the wall is a total waste of time.

A second point concerns the competing strength of businesses when it came to An Post's application for the driving licence franchise. Did the IPU engage with An Post either before or after that application? During last week's presentation, Mr. McGann referred to the number of centres that are currently available to process driving licence applications versus what the post office network could have provided under the auspices of An Post. Did An Post, the IPU or anyone else challenge the baseline number of outlets that were to be provided by the national driving licence service?