Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take the smaller issues relating to my portfolio. The local improvement scheme was suspended by people who did not have an understanding of rural Ireland and at least I fought to get it reopened. I was delighted to that it was reopened by the Department. I know we could not put in the amount of money that was required, but at least the scheme was reopened and local authorities now have an opportunity to access it.

The Deputy is correct about post offices. There are 1,130 rural post offices and 51 are owned by An Post. The rest are privately owned. One of the issues considered was other services being used. Almost 50% of these were co-located post offices, which means there were shops or other businesses in them. Mr. Bobby Kerr and his committee are also considering including in new recommendations issues such as broadband, meaning the post office will be able to sell broadband. As the Minister said, we had discussions with the Department of Social Protection. It sent out its letter but that is being changed as there was really no mention of the post office. That is now happening.