Mr. John Daly:

I will comment on some of those points and I will ask Mr. Liam Sheehan to comment on the others. We continue to engage with the IPU. Its members might get a little frustrated at times that we do not engage with them as early as they might like, but that comes about when we are in confidential discussions with parties and we are subject to non-disclosure agreements. We communicate with them and with the Communications Workers' Union with regard to our staff at the earliest opportunity. We have also had several meetings with them to discuss the potential for the future of the social welfare business. We have told them that we are in discussions with several parties and that when we have established possible sustainable business models we will engage further with them. I do not accept that we have not engaged with them, as I believe we continue to do so.

In terms of the consultation process, since the last meeting we have gone through the process in eight locations. In two of those, Broadford in County Clare and Greencastle in County Donegal, our final decision was to advertise the offices. In the other six locations, we had a mix of representations from the local community, ranging from many to almost none in some cases. We have listened to the local communities and in six cases we decided that the business could be done at alternative nearby post offices that have the capacity and that, in our view, were a suitable distance away.

In terms of trial periods, our decisions are not made on the commercial viability of each individual post office. If we had to make a decision on every individual post office, there would be many more post offices, which would not be financially sustainable. We look at the network as a whole, and the bigger offices subsidise the smaller offices in the network. If we were to look at individual offices on a financially sustainable basis, a lot more would close. We do not look at it like that but according to the criteria I outlined - namely, the distance to other offices, the capacity of other offices, etc.

The contract with the postmasters has been in place for a very long time, as has the payments system; in fact, it has been in place since well before the foundation of An Post.

It is incumbent on us, like any other organisation, to review contracts and payment systems from time to time to get the best value and customer service regarding standards of premises and service, etc. That is what we are doing. We introduced the five years in 2012. Approximately 35 offices have a five-year contract. We do not believe a contract for life, which the old contract effectively was, is appropriate in the commercial world in which we live.

The same issue arises regarding family transfers. Because we provide State contracts we have an obligation to advertise all posts rather than just hand contracts to individual people. In many cases the family members will be in a prime position to go for an office that is advertised, particularly if they have experience of running the office. In may cases the family member will be at an advantage even before we begin.