I know the topic of post offices is close to the Tánaiste's heart. Closures of post offices tend to be associated with rural towns and villages but two offices have closed in my constituency of Dublin South-West in the past two years, one in Templeogue village and the other, very recently, in Rathfarnham village. In fairness, these closures were not the fault of An Post. In Templeogue, the shop housing the post office shut and An Post could not find a replacement operator. In Rathfarnham, the postmaster, whose family had been a long time operating the post office, died before Christmas. That was a significant loss to the community. An Post has been trawling for other operators to take over but has not been successful so far. What is the Tánaiste's view on An Post purchasing and directly operating former post office buildings rather than franchising them out?

That is an interesting question to which I do not have an immediate answer. There is an issue in this regard. We have provided financial supports to An Post to support post offices. Increasingly, it is becoming an issue that a postmaster exits and there is no subsequent take-up. I will talk to the Minister of State, Deputy Chambers, who has been working with the postmaster organisations, and put Deputy Lahart's suggestion to him.