Mr. Sean Martin:

I thank Deputy Duncan Smith. Probably the most relevant question that has been asked over the past number of years is why are we still in the same position we have been in considering how important the post office network is to the economy. We hand out €6.7 billion into local economies. Jim Power put a multiplier of two on it. That is hard cash that sustains businesses locally; it creates jobs locally. In the context of the climate and a green agenda, we keep services local. There are fewer carbon emissions and there is a smaller carbon footprint.

We provide access to postal services and financial services for the most vulnerable in society, for the marginalised, for the less well off and for the people who are living hand to mouth. That is a considerable service we give to the Government, and we probably give that free.

Many of our postmasters feel frustrated and annoyed that the Government still has not made a decision as to whether we are valuable enough to invest a small amount of money in. We are not looking for money for nothing. There are extra services we can provide. We named them, not this year, not last year but over the past number of years. We have said we can do form identification for social welfare, for passport express, for the electoral register. We also said we can do form generation. This, we believe, can save the taxpayer millions of euro because we can do it on an only-when-required basis.