According to page 63 of the programme for Government, "This Government believes An Post has untapped potential to do more and make a further significant contribution across many areas of public, business and community life in Ireland." What are the Government's plans to prevent further post office closures? Post offices are essential services in our rural towns and villages. I recently found out from helping a constituent that just three post offices in County Kildare and one in County Laois provide the free address service to homeless people. Will this service be expanded to more post offices to make it easier to access?

I thank the Deputy for raising this important matter. An Post has transformed as a company in recent years. A few years ago, it was losing a lot of money but it has really transformed its business and its service since then. The whole parcel delivery service has become very lucrative for it and of course it is getting back into financial services and banking. As such I am very encouraged by the transformation and changes that have happened in An Post in recent years.

I totally agree that our network of local and rural post offices is an important part of our community fabric and we want to retain as many as are viable. In terms of the details of future plans, it would probably be best if I were to ask the Minister, Deputy Eamon Ryan, to come back to the Deputy on that.