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

There is a huge drive in An Post and it has the capability to pitch for online and offline services there. That is what my aim is. At the end of the day, this is about communities. What is the aim here? The social value is difficult to try to quantify but we all appreciate it. It is that the service is there. We know the effect. I spoke to a postmaster yesterday, as I mentioned earlier. The impact of that postmaster closing down will be huge across a 30 km return journey radius for local communities. Regarding the value and the services that can be provided locally, offline as well as online, I believe An Post will be well equipped to provide that. My answer to the Senator's question is that now is the time to do this, but also every Department needs to be identifying those potential offline services as well.