Post office closures will ‘devastate rural Ireland,’ protesters say

Dozens of postmasters and supporters marched into the GPO in Dublin on Tuesday to protest against the potential closure of post offices in a move they fear will “devastate rural Ireland”.

The branch owners from around the country circled the floor of the headquarters with placards demanding maintenance of services before submitting a letter seeking a meeting with An Post chief executive David McRedmond.

“Ordinary people from the street rang me yesterday in tears to know is their post office closing this Friday. It’s devastating,” Ned O’Hara, general secretary of the Irish Postmaster’s Union (IPU) said in a rallying call outside the O’Connell Street building.

The exact number of potential closures is unknown but there are fears among postmasters the number could run into the hundreds, a significant reduction on the 1,100 currently in operation.

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Half of these are now loss making operations, Mr McRedmond told the Government last week.

Outside the GPO, Mr O’Hara said his members and the community were now “extremely worried about the future” with proposed moves that could devastate rural communities.

It was a feeling shared by the dozens of post office operators who marched inside, believing their businesses to be a vital lynchpin to smaller populations outside of Ireland’s towns and cities.

Padraic O' Conghaile of The Rural Voice organisation, formed in 2011 to lobby on various issues to do with the maintenance of services, said country areas were being "chased into urban Ireland and cities".

“We want fairer play for rural Ireland and we want services. We pay our contributions to the State the same as any other people,” he said.

Prepared to adapt

Mr O'Hara said postmasters accept that times are changing and are prepared to compromise based on a review of services conducted by Bobby Kerr.

Rather than the threat of closures, he said, the future of post offices should be about enveloping essential State services including motor tax, training courses and mobile health checks among others.

“We are prepared to adapt,” he said. “There are problems there and there are also solutions.”

Of particular annoyance to IPU members is the perception that An Post are progressing plans to close their post offices without proper consultation or without due regard to alternative solutions.

It said Mr McRedmond had written to its members last week setting out an intended reorganisation of the network in something come to be seen as a “solo run”.

“We believe that the key solutions we need are already contained within the Post Office Network Strategy Board report chaired by businessman Bobby Kerr which includes a structured plan to sustain and develop the Post Office Network over four years and earmarks a Government investment of €56m,” the IPU outlined in a statement ahead of Tuesday’s protest.

A larger demonstration is planned for the Dáil next month.

On Monday, Mr McRedmond said there was now an “over servicing” of the postal network in Ireland.

While in other counties the average is one post office every 15km, in Ireland there are five, he said.

“We need to look at a plan for fewer, bigger post offices, co-located where possible. We’re going to strip down the service to make it financially viable,” he said.