Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

We want an extensive post office network which means a post office for any community with a population of more than 500 and ensuring that everyone is within 15 km of a post office. We must also ensure that any island with a significant population has its own post office. There is scope for additional services and this is happening. The Deputy will be aware that post offices are now offering foreign exchange services and some offer banking services, which is very welcome. We are also piloting and progressing digital assist for people who are unable to use the Internet or who are uncomfortable doing so. Digital assist will enable them to access those online services at their post offices.

That will only work to a certain extent. It will make some post offices viable and we want to do that, but we also need to accept there will be some post offices that are not viable precisely because the world has changed, there are many fewer people in rural Ireland who are unemployed and pensioners in rural Ireland, generally speaking, want to receive their pension into their bank account, because that is the way they are used to getting paid. People turning 66 are quite young these days. We also need to recognise that as we extend broadband to more and more parts of rural Ireland, those services that people say can save the post offices, like motor tax, banking and all of those things, will be increasingly accessed by people in their own kitchens, using 4G or high-speed broadband.

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