Mr. David McRedmond:

One of the interesting things is that when I came to An Post four and a half years ago I was told it was a dying company, like many postal companies. This is not a criticism of previous management, which did a very fine job of ensuring we had the highest quality service. However, all postal services were in decline because letter volumes were switching to email and electronic. That was the decline of An Post. Likewise, post offices were seen to be in decline, both with regard to whether rural Ireland was in decline or whether certain services were in decline. In fact, we have seen a reversal. We have worked very hard to do that.

It is my fault if those people do not see a future. It is my fault if they are not realising there are long-term prospects. I have to sell that, and the Senator is quite right to raise it. I and Ms Byrne have to sell that, and we must be clear that there is a really good future. However, it is hard work. It is hard work for every business. It is hard work if someone is the manager of the Spar or is a butcher. We have great postmasters who have seen an increase in incomes and are growing their businesses. We must now support and strengthen that. We will support it in every way we can. I look to this committee for positivity about that future, which is important, while I respect the views the committee is getting from postmasters. We have to sell that.

There is a difficult period. Undoubtedly, the next year or 18 months are going to be a difficult period. However, as the services we have worked hard to bring in proceed, we will see a change. If the committee looks at our delivery network, it will see that the change to parcels has been quite dramatic. We have grown our revenues every year for the past four years, so there is a future.