Mr. Mark Griffin:

Over the past number of months, anybody, particularly in rural Ireland, would recognise the huge value An Post has provided in terms of its functions. A strategic plan was put in place in 2019 as part of an injection in terms of delivering the plan. A long-term loan was provided by the State. State aid was approved and secured for that. The figure is €30 million - €15 million to support the universal service obligation and €15 million to support the network. The network has done very well over the past couple of years. I do not want this to be construed in the wrong way but An Post has looked at the services it can provide through the network. We have the recent report from Grant Thornton, which An Post is considering. The Minister of State, Deputy Naughton, has met with An Post and the IPU about that. There is active engagement on it. When one looks at the ubiquity of the Internet, digital and all the rest, one can see there is a significant enough cohort of people who are not comfortable with engaging with the Internet. This is a piece the Government needs to look at on a whole-of-government basis. A report was prepared under the last Government that we are looking at updating with a view to bringing it to Government to see what additional service might be capable of being channelled through the post office network. I expect that to happen over the next couple of weeks.