Mr. Sean Martin:

In 2022 Grant Thornton did a bottom-up analysis of the network and it felt at that stage that we needed €20 million.

The difficulty is if we look for €20 million from the Government, that has to get European approval. That would take too long and the vast majority of our offices would close. Without Government funding being increased, there will be unrestrained closures throughout the country, rural and urban, of up to 40% of offices in January next year. Some 400 post offices may go because the Government will decide it does not believe communities should have those services.