Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

There is always a fascination to the effect that robots will take over the work of humans. Some postmasters believe that is already happening with the advent of PostPoint. One of the solutions of An Post comes up with in response to the closure of post offices is to suggest putting a PostPoint at the back of a Centra or Spar shop. That is convenient from the point of view of a consumer who can get stamps when they get everything else. The social interaction goes and everything else. Is An Post considering an expansion of PostPoint? Of course An Post wants PostPoint in more locations but that is not what I am asking. Is An Post planning to put more services through the PostPoint server, system and robot to include things such as social welfare payments and an ATM of sorts so it becomes a multi-transaction facility? There is a concern among the men and women who staff and run our post office network that slowly but surely, the automation of PostPoint and its spread will make many more of them redundant. Perhaps Ms Byrne will expand on that point.