Mr. John Daly:

As I outlined in my address, we have never done as many activities as we currently do in post offices. We have introduced many more new services over the last number of years and continue to seek new services.

There is no business we are not examining, in terms of transaction processing or anything involving the customer having to attend at a counter.

The trial post and pay locations have high footfall with extended opening hours. As Mr. Sheehan outlined, the services available include stamp sales, bill payment and mobile top-up. We are not alone in providing these services and we have significant competition. If we do not go into these locations, where people like to do their shopping and go more often, our competition will grow and we will create even bigger competitors. The pilot is about increasing our market share in these products and preventing the competition from growing even further. One can pay bills in many retailers. Parcel companies are building chains through retailers. If we do not go into these retailers our competition will increase. We are examining An Post's share of these markets.