Mr. John Daly:

There were years when the number of closures was bigger. That was due to a voluntary exit programme agreed between the Irish Postmasters Union and us. It came about because many postmasters at the time were elderly, lived in areas where the business did not exist and they sought to leave. The exit programme has not been in place for a number of years and as I mentioned those who exited in the past few years have done so to retire, pursue other business opportunities or people have stopped using the shops. The earlier period where there was a large number of closures coincided with an exit programme. Many people wanted to go for a long time and they went in a short period. We are now down to people who want to retire in the natural course of events.