Gerard Craughwell (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I would like the following to find its way into any report we might do: modern life and modern governance requires there is a return on investment by way of profit or whatever to the State. If we are going to give post offices €12 million we want to see what we are going to get back out of it. However, some things in life simply are not quantifiable. Mr. O'Hara put his finger on it when he said the IPU never assessed this and there is no way, really, to assess it. Mr. Martin made the point of attending the funeral of somebody whose only point of contact with the outside world was him. I am sure Mr. McEntee and his wife have a key position within the community where people can trust that if they go down to the McEntees with a problem they do not know how to resolve, he will have an answer for it. He might spend three quarters of an hour with them trying to assist them in working their way through the system. There is no way to quantify that service to the public. In a way it is a sort of social service and all sorts of other things. Sometimes we must be willing to put capital into those things that keep communities together.

We are losing banks and petrol pumps in local villages. We are losing everything in the drive for profit. Some things cannot be based on profit and must be recognised as a public service. In keeping communities in rural Ireland together I believe, as I have always believed, the post office is the central key point for all of them.

I do not know how this works, but if I want to get an An Post credit card or one of its other services such as a current account or whatever, I assume I can process my form through one of the witnesses' post offices. Do they get anything after my form is submitted? I am sure they get a payment for the form but what happens after that?