On Saturday, the people of Tallaght came onto the streets to protest and demand that our post office be saved. More than 1,500 people have signed a petition either online or in person. From talking to people there, those who use the post office at The Square regularly are devastated at the prospect of losing a post office where they get a wonderful service from the workers. The post office will be closed and replaced by a smaller post office in a different location, with fewer staff, counters and services. It is a victim of the privatisation agenda and there are other victims of this round of privatisation at Rathmines, Phibsborough, New Ross, Roscommon and Tipperary, and there are similar protest movements in all of those places. So far, when asked about this, the Government has always said this is a commercial decision for An Post. Frankly, that is not good enough. The Government needs to have a position. Does it support this privatisation agenda? Does it support people being threatened with losing their postal services or does it oppose it?

We briefly discussed this matter last week in the Dáil and I committed to coming back to the Deputy on it. If my office has not done so, we will come back to him very shortly on it. The Government has shown huge support to An Post and the post office network. We have taken every opportunity to put new services into the post office, reflecting the changing world we live in and trying to support the sustainability of the post office. That is the position of the Government. Individual post offices are a matter for An Post as a semi-State body, but I will come back to the Deputy directly on the issue.