Mary Fitzpatrick (Fianna Fail)
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I thank the witnesses for being here today. I thank the postmasters before us and those around the country for the service they provide. It is an incredibly valuable service. The sum of €14 billion in transactions last year does not in any way quantify the quality of the human, social and community service that members of An Post provide. I congratulate Mr. McRedmond and An Post. The post office and postal service have been innovating since the 1700s. He is right; it is the oldest franchise. It is a gold-standard service, and the performance of Mr. McRedmond and the organisation speaks for itself.

My questions are for the Department. Unfortunately, in my lifetime, far too many postmasters and people in my community have come to me with the fear that their post office will be removed. Almost ten years ago, postmasters were preparing to stand in the general election campaign of 2016. I appreciate the commitment that is in place. This Government and previous Governments have been very clear. The funding and the subsidy have sustained close to 900 post offices. What is at the core here, however, is not just the service and the community value, but the quality of employment for the self-employed postmasters. The two big costs in a business are the cost of wages, and energy costs. Everything else flows from there.

The Department is bringing a proposal to Government. I wish it well with that. I wish that the proposal was coming sooner, because making our postmasters wait until the budget in October is really putting them under pressure with a deadline of December. I appreciate that negotiations are going on, but will the witnesses speak about the innovation the Department is looking at to not just put in place a solution for the next five years, but beyond that in order to avoid another cliff? I appreciate there are contractual issues that may dictate the five years, but we must look beyond that.