Mr. Gavin Kelly:

To date, our engagement directly with the post office has been positive. The Senator referred to comments made by the Irish Postmasters' Union on the potential closure of post offices. The issue has not come up in our engagement with the post office to date. We believe the contract we are signing with the post office goes to ensuring the viability of post offices into the future by bringing another service to postmasters. That is where we see the benefit for them. From our perspective, it makes sure we bridge the digital divide so that customers who want to avail of lodgements and withdrawals can do so in the network of post offices around the country. We believe the 900 post offices currently operating give ample coverage, particularly in the locations where we are closing.

Specifically on properties, the Senator is correct. We have a number of landmark buildings around the country. A substantial number of the 88 properties are landmark buildings and many of them are large, for example, some of them have living quarters upstairs where the branch manager used to live. The Senator will be familiar with that. There is quite a bit of space in these properties that could be availed of for community use in the future. We have received a lot of expressions of interest from various community groups, credit unions and local businesses seeking to set up remote working hubs in their towns, right up to Departments and county councils. We are open to engaging on these buildings. We have already had extensive discussions and these will continue over the next six months. We are not closing any of these properties, which will remain as bank branches for the next six months. Post September, we will make sure the buildings are maintained until we have reached agreement with prospective buyers on the best use of the properties going forward. In four of the 88 locations we will retain an ATM and maintain the buildings because there is no alternative ATM in the towns in question.

On the Senator's final question on ATMs, just before Christmas we sold 700 ATMs to a company called Euronet. These were all ATMs that were based in stores and shops. Euronet is a professional services ATM company and ATMs are its only business. It focuses on maintaining specific retailer ATMs that provide an important service. We sold our ATM network in shops to Euronet. Our commitment is to maintain ATMs in the 169 branch locations that we are retaining. We will also retain four specific ATMs in certain towns where there is no alternative access to an ATM facility.