Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The transformation of which Ms Byrne speaks is fully intertwined with the dismantling of the S52 contract. Some people are still on that contract. Approximately one third of postmasters are on the old S52 contract. If I have my figures correct, approximately two thirds have moved onto the new contract. That new contract is largely unsustainable for the small rural post office. There was a time when those post offices received transactional payments and there was positive discrimination so a comparative transaction in a large urban post office would net a certain amount of transaction money but I do not know the figure. That approach was subventing the rural post office but it is gone now. Government funding is good and we all welcome it. However, this transformation which our guests see as a positive and which brings An Post into a positive revenue stream is a double-edged sword to someone like me in a rural constituency. It means more post offices are being closed in Clare and the west of Ireland to get the entire network to a sustainable point.