Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

There is no point in trying to hold the tide back. The digital economy is growing, and either An Post will be a part of that or it will not. More State and non-State services will go online. If we intend to use the old An Post model, then An Post will be in very serious difficulty.

The digital economy presents significant opportunities. This is not just a question of providing services, including digital ones, to older people. What can we do to bring young people into post offices? It should not be the case that the only time any of us goes to a post office is at Christmas or during the summer for foreign exchange or passport purposes. What will bring the next generation into post offices? The parcel service will be one aspect of that, as will banking and other financial services. There are significant opportunities for the company in that regard.

Thanks to the commitment agreement that I have penned with Eir, 97% of post offices will have direct access to high-speed broadband within the next 75 weeks. This is a significant opportunity to be exploited by the post office network. The digital economy is growing. Currently, Irish people are spending €14,000 every minute. The sad part about it is that €10,000 of that is being spent on goods and services from outside Ireland. This year, the digital market in Europe is worth €600 million. There are considerable opportunities for businesses at every crossroads in Ireland to exploit that situation. In order to do so, they must have access to an accessible postal service. That can be available. The front office is the local post office and the back office is the parcel service through the mail centres across the country.

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