Hildegarde Naughton (Galway West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As postmasters are independent - they are sole traders - it was hard to get a clear picture of the value and what was happening across the country. They are not State employees. The economists, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and An Post fed into this to assess the population, the distance within populations of access to a post office and the services they provide. There was a huge amount of work on that figure.

How it is going to be allocated was the Deputy's next question, I think. A grant from the State will be given to the postmasters through An Post. How that will be worked out is something on which An Post and the IPU will be in consultation. It will then be approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. Something very important I should have said at the outset is this has to be approved in terms of the state aid rules but we have got a clear run and all of this has been talked through with the relevant officials and there should be no issue there. It is subject to state aid rules, it will be worked out with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in relation to how it will be administered but it will be An Post paying the postmasters, and there will be consultation there.