Mr. David McRedmond:

I thank the Deputy. I recall on many occasions having to sort out some of the issues in An Post and was grateful for his support as the then Minister.

On Government services, we worked assiduously with the Department of Communications, Climate Action and Environment. Efforts were made and there were memos to Cabinet. Unfortunately, nothing has come out of that and we are now in a position whereby we have to switch our efforts because we have a lot of work to do. Our focus now is principally on developing financial and e-commerce services within the post office network. We have not entirely given up on Government services, but we need a serious response from the various Departments.

I do not think they should be doing that to save the post office network. We see it as being very frustrating because we want to provide a brilliant service for citizens, both offline and online. We think we can provide the omni-channel environment, to which we referred earlier and which the Deputy implied in his questions on some of the different private sector companies. I will let Ms Byrne respond to that.

An Post can play a role in the public services card. We have excellent technology. Not only that, we have identified technology for the future, in particular around identity and verification. As the committee knows, that is not just for the public services card but can also be used for bank accounts and a range of other services. I will let Ms Byrne address that before Mr. Bridgeman answers questions on a hard Brexit.