Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

No, I referenced that as an example. We have heard from other groups and people come before the Houses of the Oireachtas and they explain how they are pressurised. I used the example of our armed forces and members of the Defence Forces sleeping in cars, which they referenced. In this very room just a few months ago we had representatives of the Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation, INMO, telling us their members - front-line nurses - were under savage financial pressure and some were unable to afford their mortgages and had gone into arrears. I was asking about postmasters, given they are not on a salaried system but deal with transactional payments. In certain rural post offices, transactions may be slim enough and footfall might be pretty low, so are some of them struggling to a point where they are pretty much impoverished?

In my rural county, one or two postmasters have told me they stay open because of family tradition. It is quite similar to the case of the rural pub and it is not that they are making any great wage packet or income out of it. There is, instead, a cultural obligation to the community and surroundings to stay open. Does Mr. O'Hara feel some of those which he represents are in that category of being on the bread line?