CONFIRMATION THAT FOULKSMILLS POST OFFICE WILL CLOSE
FOULKSMILLS Post Office will close within six months.
It is closing along with Glenmore, Duncannon and Carrig on Bannow post offices later this year or in early 2019.
Postmistress Caroline Foxe is one of several postmistresses and postmasters in the area to decide to avail of a voluntary retirement package from An Post.
She said the lack of resourcing by successive governments and a lack of planning within An Post management has led to the closures, which are expected to decimate rural communities across the country.
Ms Foxe said: ‘ Be under no illusion that Foulksmills Post Office can be saved. Do not allow any politicians to give you “false hope”.’
She was speaking as Fianna Fáil Cllr Michael Sheehan declared that he plans to hold a meeting on the matter next month.
Ms Foxe said: ‘It is with deepest regret that Foulksmills Post Office will close over the next three to six months, on a date to be confirmed by An Post. I ask where were the politicians over the last four years especially have been. Government has let us down again and it is a crying shame to see communities lose their post offices and the services that are so vital to rural Ireland. Shame on this government and previous governments for allowing this to happen.’
She said like many postmasters and postmistresses across Ireland she had not retired out of choice but because ‘we actually had no other option’.
‘ This is the saddest day for rural Ireland,’ she said.