Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees
Wednesday, 15 June 2022
Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport
Future of An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed)
Mr. Pat Watt:
I will focus on that for a moment. It is important to note that two thirds of the core network is co-located. In other words, the branch is in a retail outlet anyway. There is nothing unusual in PostPoint when compared with a post office. It is not robotic; it is the same terminal. There is human interaction involved so that personal engagement remains. We have a post office network and an extensive PostPoint network, as we always have, and one complements the other. The PostPoint offering is very reduced relative to a full-service post office. The intention is to fill in gaps where a post office would not be viable because the transaction levels would not be there but as part of broader retail offering, it makes sense. If in certain locations we get to a point at which a post office is no longer viable, for whatever reason, PostPoint is a decent solution to provide continuity of service to those local citizens. There are one or two options in that regard. Either the business goes to the nearest local post office, which could be 5 km or 10 km away, or we put in a PostPoint, which is a reduced service offering but is still a person-to-person service. It is still an assisted service.
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