Results 2,701-2,720 of 8,928 for speaker:Hildegarde Naughton

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: -----figure on that. We engaged and the Department engaged with officials in the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. There were two economists involved in this as well, so again this is all based on evidence and looking at the scale of population these post offices were going to service. That is where the €10 million has come from, namely, through an awful lot of research...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: As postmasters are independent - they are sole traders - it was hard to get a clear picture of the value and what was happening across the country. They are not State employees. The economists, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and An Post fed into this to assess the population, the distance within populations of access to a post office and the services they provide. There...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: That is a very good question. It is like a pyramid system and my focus is on the post offices that need the support the most. They are the target area. What I wanted to do with this package is ensure there is no postmaster who is closing because he or she feels his or her post office is not viable. The number one target here was to ensure our post office network is intact. If anyone...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: On the interdepartmental report, this is very clear. When I came into this role this was my number one priority, that is, trying to bottom out the offline services in that report. It was very clear, and I think the postmasters knew this themselves, that the offline services report was not going to be the silver bullet in itself. However, we have to look at providing offline services not...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: I have answered that previously with Deputy O'Rourke. Again, this was work on foot of information coming from An Post, working with officials in my Department, the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform and economists to look at quantifying the social value. It is important to say as well the pandemic relief fund is an €8.5 million fund over 18 months. What I am announcing...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: To be very clear, this funding package supports the post offices that are most in need. AIso, if a post office closes then it is not because there is a lack of viability or income. That is very clear in terms of this package. This is evidence-based. A huge amount of work has gone into this package over the past few months between NewERA, my Department, the Department of Public...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: There are 900 post offices in the network and they will all receive funding but on a pyramid basis. The aim of this funding is to help the post offices that are in most need. I do not want to see unnecessary post office closures and not because they lack viability for those reasons. Every community is afraid that the local post office might close so this week we have put in place an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: I should have said the funding will be subject to state-aid rules, which do not allow us to give funding to a viable post office. The funding will target the most vulnerable post offices.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: Yes.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: The Deputy asked if the fund will be taxed. The funding is not a salary but is a State grant that will be paid through An Post to the postmasters.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: It is a State-aid grant that will be paid through the post office. Earlier I mentioned offline services. It has been made very clear that the report will not be a silver bullet hence the real need to have a financial package in place while those services are being identified but not just one Department, not just my Department and not just the Department of Transport. For example, the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: She did so much of the work.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: It must be an all-of-Government approach.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: Every Department must be involved. I agree with the Deputy and that is why it is not just one Department doing this work; in the meantime we have a financial package.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: I thank the Deputy.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: There are 900 different postmasters with different cost bases and that makes sense because we all know post offices in different locations, where some are co-located and where some may be part of another building, so there are different cost bases.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: We knew that the income on that was €10 million. That was clear from the analysis and evidence around this.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: That is it exactly. It is also important to say that the pandemic relief fund announced last July was €8.5 million over 18 months. This is €10 million over 12 months. This is substantially more than the pandemic relief fund which comes to an end at the end of this year. The postmasters wanted clarity by the end of June, this month, on that because many of them were going to...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Transport, Tourism and Sport: Future of the An Post Network: Discussion (Resumed) (1 Jun 2022)

Hildegarde Naughton: That will be worked out with An Post, working with the Irish Postmasters' Union, IPU, on a pyramid basis. We will be targeting those post offices that are most in need of support. There will also be incentives built into that and this will then be approved by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. The key aim here is to prevent closures of our existing post office network and...