A Co Leitrim postmaster has warned that rural communities would suffer further isolation and be left without any "focal point" if An Post were to close any more sub-offices.
Mr Aodh Flynn of Manorhamilton was reacting to a report published this week by the Minister for Public Enterprise, Mrs O'Rourke. It found the post office network was not viable and said An Post's preferred option was to close 1,500 sub-offices and maintain only 400 of its 800 automated outlets.
Mr Flynn, chairman of the Sligo-Leitrim branch of the Irish Postmasters' Union, said the report was "much gloomier" than expected. "The proposed closures have frightened everybody," he said.
Closures on the scale suggested would leave large areas of north Leitrim without any post office. There had already been a wind-down of State services in rural communities with the closure of two-teacher schools and small Garda stations.
"The Post Office is the last government department or communication with officialdom that rural communities have left. It is a focal point within communities and if you take it away the whole function of the State would be non-existent in large areas."
Closures would also have a disproportionate effect on rural areas. "If you live in a city there could be three within walking distance and the closure of one or two would not be a big disruption, but in the country, people would be left with no post office within 10 or 12 miles and there is no public transport," he said.
If a decision was taken to close all but 400 offices in the State, 75 per cent of the post offices in Leitrim would close and there would be just two or three left in all of north Leitrim. A number of small sub-offices had already closed.
Mr Flynn, who is a Fianna Fail member of Leitrim County Council, said many of the people who ran small offices made only about £5,000 per year and this would not make a large saving for An Post.
He said the average earnings among the State's 1,800 postmasters, 90 per cent of whom were women, was £10,000.
Postmasters had suggested expanding into other services such as motor tax and the checking of documents being returned by farmers to the Department of Agriculture, but none of these had been taken up.