Mr. Ned O'Hara:

I thank Deputy O'Rourke for the question. Again, I thank him for his support. We have met him before. He has supported us, and he speaks in favour of us. The issue we have in relation to post offices is that there is a commonly held view that the small, rural post offices that are under threat. The answer that has been given to me before has been interpreted as a case of unrestrained closures. We do not where they will take place and we do not know how many of them there will be. We expect that the urban post offices, particularly given the recent increases in costs, will likely be most under threat. That is the fear. If the big post offices close, then the model will become unsustainable. We are not differentiating between large, medium or small post offices. All we are saying is that every post office is on the economic margin its own right.

Mr. McEntee made this point a few minutes ago. Every post office is different. They are the same, but different. They are all on the economic margin for different reasons. There could be a selection across any town or any village in Ireland. It also includes the cities. Large post offices in Dublin could be at risk.