Glencar P.O. future ‘hopeful’ after meeting

A MEETING between An Post officials and Gerald O’Sullivan of Glencar Post Office took place on Tuesday in Dublin with the outcome described as ‘hopeful’.

Junior Minister for Tourism and Sport Brendan Griffin also attended the meeting and a decision will be made on the post office’s future in the coming weeks.

“The meeting went okay to be honest but we still won’t know for another two to three weeks,” said Gerald O’Sullivan.

“All we can do is remain hopeful, but to have Junior Minister Brendan Griffin by your side in the meeting with the CEO of An Post can only be a positive for us.”

Gerald said the public support received in recent weeks was also raised by An Post officials at the meeting. They mentioned the positive response by the public who submitted over 200 submissions, and also the local meeting in Glencar Community Centre where 400 people turned up.

“The public response came up in the meeting a couple of times and we’re hoping that’s a positive for us. They said they understand our situation and how we’re willing to stay in Glencar and run the shop, hostel and post office. We told them if the post office goes, all three businesses will go,” Gerald added.

Gerald said he doesn’t feel An Post are out to deliberately close post offices, he appreciates the fact they too are running a business. The An Post CEO told them that over 50 percent of Post Offices across the country are now losing money.

“The key thing here is that people need to support their local post office and the same is true of every post office in every community. I also want to thank all the councillors and TDs that have helped us since we started this campaign, ” Gerald added.

Meanwhile, Deputies Martin Ferris, John Brassil and Michael Healy-Rae have also issued statements expressing their hope that a positive outcome can be reached as they also attended a meeting with An Post officials and the O’Sullivan family in Dáil last Thursday.