Ms Debbie Byrne:

I echo the point Mr. McRedmond made earlier about Government services. It is very important that people view the post office as not just being in the offline world. We have state-of-the-art technology at the counter. We process a considerable number of social welfare payments every day. We also do agency banking for AIB and Ulster Bank. Our state-of-the-art IT infrastructure transfers many payments and messages to various entities, including Eir and other utilities. That often gets overlooked. When people think of the post office they often think of it as the old world. There is a state-of-the-art system at the counter that can be linked into any Government entity. Before broadband gets rolled out to rural areas, there is a role for postmasters to assist people with Government services or other services. We have the infrastructure to do that. We have visited various Departments to correct that image of the post office being of another world and not of the modern world.

We operate saving bonds on behalf of the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA. We would love to take more money in. It is not so keen now, given existing rates and all of that. If that changes and the market changes, it is an area we definitely want to expand. We manage more than €20 billion on behalf of the State there. After the crisis, a lot of money flowed into the post office because people regard it as a safer place for their money.

The Senator mentioned trust. There is big trust in the brand. Independent studies are carried out every year and An Post ranks in the top five most trusted brands in the country.

It is because of that that we have had success with the launch of An Post Money, credit cards and loans. People feel it is a viable alternative to banks and we have stimulated the competition based on the trust within the brand.

The Senator is right about the post office savings book, which is a great way to get kids saving. It is a little bit old-fashioned and we are looking at developing a new product in that space, which we hope to introduce next year. We also sponsor handwriting and spelling competitions in schools, together with the Department of Education and Skills, so we have great links into schools and we want to use that connection to promote financial awareness and prudence among kids at a younger age. That is something we are working on.

I take the Senator's point on the GPO. We had a post office on Parnell Square which the postmaster refused to operate any more because of inner-city issues. Many of those clients transferred to the GPO, so it can be a bit rowdy on certain days. I take that point.