Brian Stanley (Laois, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his reply. I welcome the initiatives he mentioned. The Kerr group has come out with recommendations and they are being examined but time is of the essence. Unfortunately, the post office network is not in a good place. It is reckoned that 500 post offices are not economically sustainable and that has to change. The only way it can be changed is through broadening the range of services available through the post office network.

I welcome the hub working group as well. The Minister of State set out three recommendations in the House last week. The first two - the shared value post office system and the co-operative model - are well worth examining but there is a question over the mobile recommendation. I am not too sure whether that would work. However, the range of services needs to be broadened to make the post office network viable. What can be done immediately, given an interim solution is needed? If not, the network will lose more post offices.

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