Mr. David McRedmond:

I beg the Deputy's pardon. I misunderstood. With regard to a population of 500 and 3.7% not being a true reflection of the number of people who will be affected, I am speaking about a national number. When I spoke about Cork, I meant County Cork and I was certainly not attempting to misrepresent. There is no county where the number is more than 10%. There are more along the western seaboard.

The idea regarding students is great. Students who go to the United States on J1 visas use our financial services card because it is brilliant. It saves them transaction fees and is safe. We do provide these services. I do not want to give away too many of our commercial secrets but we are looking at some really special services to attract a younger generation in particular. Our marketing is based on various groups of people who should be keen to work with An Post. We have a major brand project under way. That brand project is precisely to deal with the issue that the services have not been marketed as well as they should have been. This is why we put together a separate company and why I brought in probably one of the best marketeers in Ireland, Debbie Byrne, to head it up.

In the context of the micro-payment system with credit unions, a lot of work was done on this and things did happen. We can get back to the committee with the details.

Deputy Canney made the point that business people in villages want to get involved in the post office. We have spoken about appeals and co-location. He asked whether applications will be considered swiftly. Earlier, Deputy Neville from Limerick said he wanted them delayed. We do not want to delay them too much and we have said they will be considered within 28 days. We have addressed the points made on marketing.

Deputy Pringle made the point that post offices have been closed quietly for years. As I have said, we are being transparent and open. This does not mean we should not be criticised but at least we can say we are being very clear about it. We published as much detail as we possibly could on the post offices. He asked about the relationship between the Department and An Post. I report to the Minister. I also report almost monthly to a cross-departmental group hosted by the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment and involving other Departments. It is quite an active engagement. I am keen on that engagement, as is my team.