Mr. Sean Martin:

The average age, obviously, is towards the elderly. That will pose a problem for the network going forward.

In relation to viability, I am not so sure there are many post offices viable out there, whether big, small, medium, urban or rural. I will give three quick scenarios. We probably have 200 post offices with revenue of €25,000. They have no staff costs other than four weeks' holidays. They will come out with a net profit of €19,800. They probably do in the region of 20,000 to 30,000 transactions a year and handle €1.25 million. If we look at an €80,000 post office, there is one staff member along with the postmaster. With total costs of €49,000, it comes out with €30,650. It handles 150,000 transactions a year and €5.5 million in terms of money handed out. An office with revenue of €150,000, with two-and-a-quarter staff along with a postmaster and net costs of €114,000, is coming out with €35,100. None of these post offices is really viable.