Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Grand. I am looking at the presentation sent to us in advance and the figures therein. There is a good gloss on them, which is great. I was in the Seanad in 2016 - perhaps in the Chair - when a different Deputy Naughten was the Minister responsible for An Post delivering news of a price increase from 70 cent to a euro, which was an enormous increase per letter at the time. It was delivered on the basis of it being the only way of keeping the post office working. It has certainly saved it from many of the problems that might have been there otherwise.

The 2019 profit before net finance and income costs was a positive €66 million and last year that figure was a negative €32 million. In the first quarter of this year, the company still lost nearly €10 million after depreciation. It is not as bad as it might be but it is not necessarily where we want it to be. I presume the witnesses would prefer a bottom line figure adding to the reserves rather than reducing them.

There are some questions that were not asked. Social welfare is great but I presume much of the pension and children's allowance payments are now going to bank accounts. There was a point about the pandemic unemployment payment being transitioned to a jobseeker's payment so people having to appear in order to sign on would be good. It makes sense and gives additional transaction volumes to the post office while providing security to the State that people claiming are genuinely entitled to do so. I am sure the vast bulk of them are.

Are there any figures on the age profile of An Post's customers. I have occasionally brought an older person in my neighbourhood to collect a pension and that person would usually spend it all on the other side of the shop. Such people buy most of their groceries in the same place from where they got their pension. It tends to be older people in those queues. There is new technology and I am not terribly familiar with it, such as Revolut, and An Post seems to have a model based on social welfare, where many of those payments may go directly to accounts. There is a bill payment service and many companies are trying to get people to pay bills more directly such as by direct debit and so on. People going abroad do not need foreign exchange services as much either, especially with the euro. We may not have as much travel in future and even when we do, people will use credit cards and tap technology. Cash is becoming less important. There is an opportunity with State savings and people are still very happy to see this as the safest place to put their money.

Do the witnesses have data on the age profile of customers and how An Post might try to attract younger people to use post offices? They are not using them in the same way older people are.