Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I was not aware of this until a few years ago but many post offices in rural areas have a backroom sorting room at the rear of a post office where two or three An Post employees could be there in the back. There is a trend at the moment to try to consolidate these to An Post-owned post offices, as opposed to contractor post offices and the term "consolidation" is used. People often think that consolidation means saving money but I know of an analysis done in County Clare where two or three of these backroom sorting offices would be closed and brought in centrally, and the costs of that have been laid bare to me. It is costing far more. It is bringing people from a place of employment they have been in for years into a town centre location, which is not very sustainable or cost saving. I know that Mr. Mulvey will not have the answers to this question here today but the board of An Post need to have a little bit of oversight on this on consolidation and rationalisation. All of these terms are part of the 21st century running of a business but they do not always save costs and are not always sustainable. I ask that An Post might reconsider some of these or at least have a fresh look at some of these in terms of the costings involved.