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

I thank the Minister. With regard to the Arts Council I support the views that the Minister has taken. I do not believe we could have reappointed the director, notwithstanding the fantastic work that Ms Kennelly did. In the circumstances we had to have thorough review before we could reappoint somebody for five years. I just wanted to say that I fully support the view the Minister took on that.

The Minister of State is probably aware that I am a postmaster. The Irish Postmasters' Union, An Post and officials from the Department of public expenditure and reform were before the committee last week. Perhaps the Minister of State will give his thoughts on the support being asked for. The €10 million per year for three years of State funding that was put in place has been a lifeline for hundreds of offices. This is not just post offices; this is about hundreds of communities. There is an ask now for €50 million a year for five years. I hope the Government will look on this extremely positively. If we do not put this in place, we will ultimately lose communities. We will lose the post offices and we will lose the communities too because of the other businesses that would close. We have seen what happened in the UK a decade or 15 years ago where hundreds of communities across that country shut down all other services because of the post offices closing.

On sport, will the Minister of State offer his comments on the potential for an LSSIF round? There was a round of funding 12 months ago but a significant number of sports were not in a position at the time to apply, for example, boxing. A lot of them do not own their own facilities. Something I particularly love myself, and which we play in my area, is rounders. Rounders is not too common but we do not have a centre of excellence for rounders in the country. It is one of our national sports, along with hurling, GAA and handball. What are the proposed funding rounds coming up in the future?