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

It was apparent to me early on after entering my Ministry that the services being explored by various Departments would not be adequate to maintain the existing post office network and that more work needed to be done across the Government in order to identify potential services that could be provided offline. Under the Government's digital strategy, 90% of services are to be provided online. That leaves 10% that could be offered offline. We need to undertake a larger body of work to identify those services. An Post would be in a position to bid for services, be they online or offline.

There are two strands to this. First, there is an all-of-Government approach to identifying the offline services, bearing in mind the digital strategy. Second, An Post could bid for services as part of its mandate to ensure that we have a thriving post office network across the country.