Mr. John Daly:

The Tesco and PostPoint outlets are individual retailers and this service is just an adjunct to their business. The post offices are dedicated outlets and the rationale behind security for post offices relates to the level of cash, particularly for social welfare payments. As Mr. Sheehan and I have already pointed out, PostPoint agents do not provide social welfare payments. The level of cash payments that they operate for An Post is very low. We do not have any obligations regarding these deals but that has to do with the cash in the social welfare business.

This is a pilot of four offices. PostPoint has been around for more than ten years, as have its competitors. It is important to note that PostPoint is not new.