Mr. Sean Martin:

The Deputy asked if the post office was relevant or important. In our opinion, it is. It is a national asset that delivers vital community and Government services and will continue to do so. It has more than 1 million customers per week. It is now probably the only bastion where there is access to cash. As we all know, cash is still important in Ireland. It is important to customers. In particular, people who live hand to mouth use cash because they cannot afford to use a bank. Is the Government now saying we will not need to look after those people in the future? I do not think we are saying that and hope we are not.

We all understand that the digital divide exists. We understand the post office, which, as has been said at this meeting, is a trusted public institution. It is where people feel safe and trusted. They want to do their business in a physical environment and face to face. We can continue to do that. As we have said, physical goods are still going around the country. The volume is ever increasing. We need a physical footprint for that. More important is the post office's resilience in a crisis. We saw during the Covid-19 pandemic that the post office was the only State institution that remained open 100% of the time to deliver for our communities. We want to continue to do that.

The post office is an investment from which the Government gets a return. It is not a subsidy but an investment because the Government will get a return of up to €700 million per annum. We hand out €7 billion per annum. The economist, Jim Power, said previously that the post office network was a multiplier of one or one and a half. It provides a significant social and economic dividend for the Government. Let us not-----