Mr. Garrett Bridgeman:

On Brexit, we have worked on being Brexit ready for the past two years. We have engaged in extensive planning. We are lucky because our three remaining mail centres are all bonded warehouses with customs staff on site. We have worked very closely with customs staff on planning and have put extra offices into our mail centre in Athlone to accommodate additional customs staff.

We have also worked very closely with Royal Mail in the UK on ensuring that any products which are bought in the UK receive green lanes when they get to Dublin Port so they are brought straight to our plants. We have also worked with many UK companies such as Amazon to ensure there is minimum disruption to our staff.

The Deputy is correct about our online journey. Earlier in the growth in online shopping, many Irish people bought from shops in the UK and Irish retailers had not caught up. The massive growth we are now seeing is from online Irish retailers, particular on the SME side. The barriers to entry for someone opening an online store are reducing. We are finding that a significant growth area for us is smaller businesses that do not have to be in Dublin or a city. People in west Cork or Galway can open a business. We are working with companies such as Portwest, Elverys and Smyths to help them to sell their product and bring it to every home in Ireland as well as every address across the world, because we can sell companies' products anywhere in the world given that we have connections. We have noticed a significant increase in local business and the growth levels will continue.