It was given on factual grounds. There is a post office at practically every halt on the road, there is certainly one in every parish. I have insisted, as did the previous Government, on maintaining those local post offices. In circumstances where a postmistress or postmaster retires and a suitable person does not comes forward to run the post office – as happened recently despite three advertisements for the position – nothing can be done to prevent the closure of such a post office.
The Deputy's question is interesting. There appears to be universal support inside and outside the House for maintaining the network of post offices, and post offices in large urban areas are viable. We cannot, however, have that aspiration and demand that local post offices operate within the post office budget.