The flow of money between the Republic and overseas through An Post has increased by more than 300 per cent over the past 18 months.
The increase is seen as reflecting the increasingly cosmopolitan make-up of the workforce.
At the weekend, An Post and Fexco presented a five-year strategic retail agreement for the extension of An Post's Western Union money transfer services to more than 1,000 post offices. Fexco is supplying the technology used.
The growing number of young Irish people spending time working abroad, as well as the cosmopolitan nature of the workforce here, has led to significantly increased flows of money through the service.
Figures for the Dublin area show 25 per cent of Western Union cash transfers are sent to Romania; 25 per cent to the Philippines; 12 per cent to the UK; 8 per cent to Latvia; 8 per cent to Nigeria, and 2 per cent to Spain.
Brazil is the top destination for transfers from Naas (50 per cent). The same country gets 20 per cent of the transfers from Galway and 33 per cent of the transfers from Waterford.
Of the transfers from Dundalk, 25 per cent go to Latvia and 19 per cent to Nigeria.
Western Union is the world's leading consumer money transfer service with 104,000 locations in more than 180 countries. The service is currently available in 150 post offices.
