Mr. John McKeon:

The Department's policy is that jobseeker payments are, in general, collected at post offices. We deviated from that during the pandemic, mainly for social distancing reasons, to give the jobseekers that option because people were being told to stay at home and not travel. Quite often, because jobseekers are paid on Thursday mornings, we see long queues outside the post offices. I have seen that outside my own local post office. We did not think that would make sense so we gave them the option of having their payment made directly to their bank accounts. We will review this as we come out of the pandemic, with a view, potentially, to reverting to payment in-person at the post office. I know that the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is looking at that very closely. Whether we will be able to do it in respect of people who are currently on the payment and it is being paid into their bank accounts or for new applicants only is an open question. I can assure Deputies that these things are being examined at the moment. On foot of having responsibility for rural, community development and the islands, the Minister is particularly conscious of the role of post offices in rural communities. This is something that is being actively considered.