Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I presume the Deputy is referring to the former Minister, Deputy Naughten. There was a press release in that regard which has informed the Deputy of our latest thinking on that issue. I was not sure whether I could mention it earlier. I agree with the Deputy there is a real issue. There was an interim agreement between the post offices and An Post. As I mentioned, Turlough O'Donnell mediated a very good solution and there were interim payments associated with that to allow us through a transition period which is coming to a close. However, we do not have the necessary business in place. Covid has completely undermined footfall and business in a variety of ways. We do not want the post office network to contract further, so the Government has today decided to make continuing support available and to set up the review group to which the Deputy referred in which various Departments will come together. It is about looking at a variety of different services we could try to deliver. That is not new. It is something that has been talked about-----