Jerry Buttimer (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have two final questions in the context of the presentations. The post office cannot cross-sell lottery products as was mentioned. As regards An Post, consolidation means closure in many cases. From talking to postmasters at local level and An Post staff, many do not share Mr. McRedmond's optimism about the future. They are concerned about the change. I hope that his vision is different from what I am hearing. I am hearing from people who have spent 30 to 40 years working in An Post, who have been postmasters for 20 to 25 years and people who have worked as postmen and postwomen. They are concerned. For example, there is the issue of district sorting offices, DSOs. Why has there been a concentration of the larger DSOs, with the withdrawal of postmen and postwomen from what are now termed small local post offices to large regional operations, thus further reducing the income of the local post offices and making them unviable?