The CEO of An Post has said that post offices will inevitably close, but he does not know exactly how many.
Speaking on RTÉ's Today with Sean O'Rourke, David McRedmond said there are currently 1,066 post offices, and in the longer term he would "guess" there would be somewhere in the region of 700 to 900.
He said An Post's aim is to provide a fantastic service across the country.
An Post, he said, is in discussions with the postmasters' union to make available compensation.
Mr McRedmond said he has told Minister for Communications Denis Naughten and the Government that the network will "consolidate".
"The decisions we are making are about providing good services and ensuring it's going to be here for the long-term," Mr McRedmond said.
"We can't treat this as something that is just set in stone; treat it as some kind of theme park, where you keep everything exactly as it was 100 years ago, of course things have to change and things will change," he added.
