Mr. David McRedmond:

That is correct. There are two elements. The first is to ensure that, as a business, the post office can be sustainable. The starting assumption is that it would not be sustainable to have a full post office in the vast number of those places. That is the reason people take the package. The Minister was right in talking about the very low amounts being earned by those postmasters and then having costs associated with operating a full post office. In simple terms, it would, by and large, be true that they are not sustainable. The protocol tests the sustainability of post offices in those areas and, in most instances, it will agree that they are not sustainable. However, there is the chance that a post office might be sustainable and that is one reason for appealing. If the adjudicator has a strong view and says that a post office should be licensed in a particular area, then An Post will, of course, do so.

Another opportunity that would probably be more attractive to retailers involves having PostPoint extended into the An Post partner model whereby retailers could offer a broader range of services. It would not be the full range of services but it would be most of them. The exception would be the services relating to social welfare. It could be possible for retailers to take those up without having to have dedicated staff and dedicated counters that give rise to the costs that make it unsustainable to have post offices in particular areas.

Businesses can also apply for Post and Pay, which would mean that they could do parcel drop-offs for particular areas. This could be integrated into An Post's mails and parcels network. We fully intend having the best availability of e-commerce throughout the country. It is not the case that there are no services available. It comes down to a net point regarding social welfare payments. In that case, the other potential solution is that the money could be paid into An Post's smart current account. That account comes with a debit card that can be used in local shops. There are some other opportunities to cover that.