Mr. Bobby Kerr:

With regard to the exit package I have proposed, first I suggest that a limited exit package is made available for a period. There are some post offices that are no longer viable within the network. Mr. O'Hara and Mr. McCann would concur with that. The other point is that we must be realistic and say it is not realistic for every post office to survive. Some of the revenue from an outlying closed post office - where there is a wish to close and exit the system - will transfer to other offices. I stress that I call this a conditional exit package and it is only available to category 3, which is the smaller post offices. It is only available where the specific post office is not required to fulfil the social welfare contract. I have made a proposal around it that is similar to other exit packages in the past. I estimated the cost of €50,000 per closed office, providing that up to 80 would be allowed to close over four years, costing in the region of €4 million. Those figures have been provided to me by the company. If that is clear I will move to the next answer.

There is a breakdown of the €56 million I am proposing that the Government would invest in the business to sustain it. I am talking about a capital expenditure programme of €9 million. Without getting too detailed, I propose that the capital expenditure would be largely spent in bigger offices. There would be approximately €50,000 in the top 50 offices, approximately €18,000 in the next 300 offices and small money of less than €2,000 in the remaining offices. I also propose a co-location grant of €1 million, which is again for the smaller categories, 2 and 3, to move from a standalone post office. If approved by the company, these would merge with a Centra or Spar, for example. I am proposing €8 million for contract sign-on. Taking the contract that is currently in existence, the current postmaster contract has existed for longer than the State and it has not been changed. I am proposing that categories 1 and 2 would move to a new contract that would be less favourable commercially, with €8 million to incentivise the move. Currently categories 1 and 2 are on a three-year rolling contract and there must be an incentive to ask them to take less favourable conditions.

There is also the guarantee of providing every postmaster with the minimum wage. Currently, the guaranteed minimum paid to a post office is €11,000 per annum.

I propose we increase that to €20,000. The minimum wage is €19,000, so just slightly above the minimum wage would be guaranteed to every postmaster. If I may, I will take a drink of water.