An Post jobs cull will ‘shut down villages’
150 rural post offices to go under redundancy plan
‘Milestone to stronger network’
THE closure of more than 150 post offices across rural Ireland as postmasters apply for redundancy will ‘effectively shut down parts of the country’, according to the chair of the Independent Post Masters group.
Some 161 postmasters applied for a voluntary retirement scheme.
Tom O’Callaghan explained: ‘The proposal here is effectively shutting down over a hundred villages and towns.’
He called for the implementation of a system similar to that which operates in New Zealand, where publicly owned local banks contribute to the community and offer financial services.
According to An Post, it offered a voluntary retirement package to its employees, and 161 postmasters applied for the scheme.
It was previously reported that management had offered a generous package to convince postmasters to shut their post offices. They have been offered nine weeks’ pay for every year of service.
This contrasts with a recent order from the Labour Court that An Post pay 300 mail staff it is seeking to lay off, a total of six weeks’ pay for every year of service. An Post wants 262 post offices to take the exit deal.
If it reaches that figure, it will cost An Post €11.5million.
An Post says that under the plan, 95% of the population would be able to access a post office within 15km and communities of 500 or more would keep their local branch.
An Post said it would ‘likely result in the closure of 161 post offices out of a network of 1,111 post offices’ and added that 950 branches would remain around the country.
Debbie Byrne, MD of An Post, said that the news ‘marks a key point on the journey towards a stronger post office network’.
She described the predicted closures as ‘inevitable’ as the network had not changed in a number of years.
The company added that they were making the changes to ensure that rural areas were still served in the coming years.
Ms Byrne added that she understood that the decision to step down would not have been easy for those retiring and acknowledged their dedication to the company over the years.
An Post plans to release a list of the post offices affected when they have discussed the details with those affected.
However, councillors and TDs said the closures will further damage rural Ireland.
Independent councillor for Monaghan Paudge Connolly said that the plans were a threat to the ‘social hub’ of rural Ireland. ‘You go to the post office to collect your pension or to do whatever and you’re bumping into your neighbours,’ he said.
‘It gets people out of the house.
‘Every so often, you hear the Government talking about revitalising towns and villages – and the policies put in operation tend to do the exact opposite.’
He said that having a post office within 15km would be no good to people who did not own a car or who rely on family members for transport.
‘You don’t have Darts, you don’t have Luases,’ he said. ‘If you are out in rural Ireland, 15 kilometres is excessive.’
Sinn Féin’s spokesman for rural affairs Martin Kenny said that the closures would ‘speed the destruction of rural communities’ and called on people to appeal the decision.
Speaking to Joe Finnegan on Shannonside FM, the vice president of the Irish Post Masters Union Ciaran McEntee said that the retirement package negotiated with An Post was favourable.
He said that there would be no mandatory closures and called on the Government to continue dispensing social welfare payments from post offices to ensure their survival.
Mr McEntee described the exit scheme as ‘an individual decision by each post master’ and said local residents ‘shouldn’t hinder the person from retiring’ if that was what they wanted to do.