Will the Tánaiste support the calls of the Irish Postmasters’ Union to secure the future of our post office network? More than 500 post offices are in locations where there are no banks within 5 km. Examples in my constituency include Oilgate, Taghmon, Rosslare, Clonroche and Ballycullane, to name but a few. They act as custodians of the community and provide a safe place of trust and security for rural people, many of whom are OAPs. They provide a one-to-one, face-to-face service no other SME service could compete with. Through local knowledge, they also save the State millions as they are often first to detect fraudulent claims and scammers. They are asking for a small budgetary sum to secure more than 1,409 permanent SME jobs. That is not to mention shop staff, who expand the workforce to more than 4,000. Will the Minister commit to funding this very important local and vital public service for rural communities that, according to the Grant Thornton report, has a social value of more than €344 million and underpins the economic activity of 885 communities, both rural and urban?

I thank the Deputy. The matter is currently under consideration by Government. I agree with his basic argument that it is important we maintain a strong post office network throughout the country. It may be the case some post offices just are not viable because of a lack of customers but we want to maintain as many as possible, especially when the redundancy or retirement arrangement comes into place in early 2023.

I very much agree with what the Deputy said on welfare fraud. Sometimes people dismiss welfare fraud. There is at least €40 million worth of social welfare fraud detected every year. The truth is it probably much more than that. It could be twice, three or four times that. The fact people who go into the post office must turn up in person to sign on and present themselves probably saves the taxpayer and the Department of Social Protection tens of millions of euro. That never appears in financial statements but it is very true.