Mr. Garrett Bridgeman:

Obviously, this was a very significant decision that we knew would affect people's lives and families. It was not one we took lightly. We stepped back and said we have four mail centres and looked at the way mail volumes will go and the way parcels will grow. All of that analysis and data came up with the conclusion that the Cork mail centre was not needed as a letter processing centre. Our letter volumes have gone down by 50% in ten years but our parcel business is growing. It grew by over 60% in two years and will quadruple over the next number of years. All the modelling and analysis showed that 80% of those parcels would originate in the Dublin region, which is a key reason there is no requirement for a processing centre in the Cork area. However, there is a requirement to have a considerable number of delivery staff in the Cork area and we have more than 650 staff spread across 35 units. Our focus is on looking at those 35 units and improving the delivery infrastructure in Cork and investing heavily there in terms of making sure those delivery units transfer from being ones that deliver letters to ones that deliver parcels and that we have lockers and all that for the people of Cork.