Micheál Carrigy (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I apologise for leaving the meeting but I was co-ordinating another event. If I repeat a question that has already been asked, I also apologise.

The future is dependent on the €75 million in funding to sustain the post office network and, I will say again, to sustain communities. We are in a digital world. Some would say that the post office network has become obsolete, represents the past because we do not use it and will be gone over time. What would the witnesses from An Post, the IPU and the Department say to that statement? I hear that coming back.

I also seek the views of the witnesses from the Department on an issue I looked at previously. Social welfare payments paid through the post office network are secure. Social welfare payments paid into bank accounts via electronic fund transfers, EFTs, are not-----