Mr. Bobby Kerr:

The guaranteed income, which is the scaled payment I propose for categories from €20,000, which is above the minimum wage, up to €100,000, would cost €18 million over the four years. This is an element of my proposal that is not acceptable to the company, but I propose that €12 million be paid to the company to ask it to keep the network open, advertise all vacancies and basically support offices that are not commercially viable. I mentioned earlier the exit package, which is €4 million. This comes to a total of €17.75 million for the first year, €11.75 million for the second year, €13.75 million for the third year and €12.75 million for the fourth year, giving a total of €56 million.

I only mentioned the water tax specifically because I have mentioned in the initial report a whole raft of services that I believe should be provided. The reason we drill down into motor tax in this recommendation is that it is probably the most significant service in terms of adding value to the post office. It is the one service that will bring the most commercial value and the best commercial return to the postmasters. That is the reason for the focus on it and singling it out.

To answer Deputy Dooley's question about the universal service obligation, I did not consider it. I only considered the retail services provided within the network of the 1,130 post offices.