Mr. Ned O'Hara:

At the risk of being cynical or sceptical, we have heard every excuse for the last four years as to the reasons we cannot have government services. We simply do not understand them. Grant Thornton, in recognising that, said that if there are procurement issues that have to be worked through, the network needs to be supported while those issues are being resolved. I refer to my earlier comment.

It may not be €17 million if we get those transactions. There are several procedural or administrative obstacles to providing those services across post office counters. In the meantime, we ask that we would be supported from 1 July while all of those procedures are put in place.