Mr. David McRedmond:

I thank the Senator for his kind comments and for the kicking. The Senator has always been a very vocal and engaged supporter of An Post. We welcome this from the Senator and from everyone else on the committee.

When I talk about An Post and about us being profitable, the word "profit" can come across wrong. It really means us being sustainable. We have a low capital cost because the State owns us. All we aim to do is to make sure we are making enough money to be sustainable for the long term and to be sustainable without recourse to Government funding. When I came into the company, we had to get a Government loan because of risks to the company's funding. We do not want to be in that position again. We have committed to the Government to maintain a level of return so we can be sustainable. When the Covid pandemic came, it really played well for us that we had some cash on our balance sheet, but we are not making super profits. The post office network especially is not making super profits. All we are trying to do is maintain enough money so we can invest in new infrastructure and invest in capital budgets. We are looking at investing €80 million in the post office network over the next five years in a number of areas, including in new products and services, in the digital and physical network, and in sustainability. We must make that money to be able to make this investment.

I absolutely hear what the Senator is saying about us being a public service. We are a public service, but we are not a service that has access to subsidies. With regard to the post office network and to the Senator's constituents, this means we make sure we deliver the best possible service we can within some of those constraints. The worst thing would be not to have a post office network or a good delivery network in five years or ten years from now. I believe that the future is strong and is bright, but there are difficult issues.

On the issue of looking at individual post offices, that was a very difficult agreement, negotiated by Ms Debbie Byrne and which we agreed. We have to stick by that agreement to be able to make sure the network is viable for the long term.