‘My salary kept being cut and I got into debt just trying to survive’

ONE Kerry postmaster said that she opted for the exit scheme because supporting her family on a declining salary was proving too difficult.

Jennifer Allen said that she had always wanted to be a postmaster and, while her career had ‘worked out to be every bit the fabulous job’ she had imagined, that it was no longer sustainable.

‘I never wanted to be anything except a postmaster,’ she said, adding that she used to look longingly into the windows of Dublin’s GPO.

The 46-year-old joined the Ballylongford post office in 2002 and became its postmaster in 2005, but said that from 2008 onwards ‘there were only cuts’.

The Ballybunion, Co. Kerry native said that her salary had been gradually declining by 5 to 10% and that she had only survived the last 10% slash when the office began offering the Lotto and its banking services improved.

The mother of two had planned to try and ‘hold tough’ for another few years but said that getting the offer from An Post made her realise ‘things really are worse than I thought’.

Ms Allen said she now worries about her older customers, some of whom have no other social contact from one week to the next apart from chatting to her at the counter.

Ms Allen said that she got into debt trying to ‘keep the show on the road’ over the last few years.

‘This exit package now is an offer, a chance for me to get out of debt and to break even. It’s time I got myself a profession,’ she said.

She described working with the post office as being ‘vocational’.