Ms Debbie Byrne:

In terms of company-owned offices, we have 41. The strategy of the network is largely a contractor network. We have not opened any company-owned offices. We work very much hand in glove with postmasters. When a postmaster or postmistress retires, we advertise that on our website. We canvass businesses locally and actively approach people on the ground. We work with our own contacts in the grocery-retailer head offices. We are very active in either finding a new premises or if we find a postmaster who does not have a premise we will work with him to find one. An Post is very active in that regard. Since the Government funding was put in place two and a half years ago, the contraction in the network has completely slowed down. The Government funding has made a big difference. There is a small amount of natural attrition every year, but that rate has slowed down, which shows the funding the Government has put in place has helped secure the network for the customers.