Mr. David McRedmond:

I thank the Senator. On the post office network, I have been in An Post for four and a half years.

I have not seen a brighter future for the network than I see now, in two areas in particular. One is the banking services, which Ms Byrne outlined. The other is the out-of-home e-commerce. In Finland, for example, 90% of its e-commerce parcels are delivered out of home, that is, not to people's houses. It has been easy to deliver parcels during the pandemic because everybody is at home, but that will change. People's patterns of life will change. We cannot predict exactly what that will be. However, I believe they are two big growth areas. They are in the future. Emerging from the pandemic is difficult. We feel for postmasters and the difficult time they have had during the Covid-19 pandemic. That is why, as Ms Byrne outlined, we have been working with the Government on a post-Covid payment to help during this period. We cannot go into the details of that yet because it is still under discussion, but we are working hard and actively on that.

As regards whether there is a future for the post office network, there is. Will 200 post offices close? Inevitably, some will close because there are approximately 200 outside of those communities of 500 people or more and some of them are just not viable. The truth is that if there are three post offices in an area and the three are not viable, but if one closes and that means the other two become viable, that is about us having a really strong network for the future. Co-location has been a key part of this strategy. An Post has shown a real commitment to the network, to the brand and to ensuring those products and services are available.

I will hand over to Ms Byrne.