Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy should wait for the report and see how positive it is. I am confident that it will be positive. The Tánaiste and Minister for Social Protection and her Department have a positive attitude to post offices. Social welfare payments comprise a critical component of post office business, irrespective of the size of a particular post office, and support a cross-selling model, especially regarding bill payment. Social protection payments are and will remain a critical element of the work done by the post offices. I hope the Deputy is aware that the interim report was published earlier this year. The final report is the one to which the Deputy refers, and it will be published in the coming weeks. Although I must receive the report, consider it and bring it to the Cabinet, there will be no undue delay. The consultation process to which the Deputy referred finished at the end of July. An enormous amount of work is going into the report so that we get it right this time. We know An Post is widely supported by the Irish people and by communities, and we want to ensure that it thrives into the future. That is what the report will be about.

See this speech in context