21 post offices in North West facing closure
TWENTY- ONE post offices across the North West are threatened with closure under a retirement scheme brokered as part of an agreement between An Post and the Postmasters Union.
Fianna Fáil TD Eamon Scanlon has described the move as a direct assault on rural communities. He said: “Let me be absolutely clear. Post masters and post mistresses are entitled to take voluntary redundancy. They have given years of dedicated service to their local communities, and should be able to retire with a fair financial package.
“However, this cannot be used as a mechanism to close these post offices. An Post and the government have been actively seeking to reduce the number of post offices in rural Ireland for years.
“Post offices cannot be viewed in the same way as other commercial enterprises. We believe that the Department should initiate a Public Service Obligation (PSO) to keep these at risk post offices open and to maintain the post office network at current levels.
“As the years go on, Fine Gael’s lack of social conscious has become more evident. This government must come clean and explain why they are allowing this to happen. In particular they need to explain to these 24 communities in the North West why they are being targeted on this occasion.” MORE ON PAGE 11 ON a dreary wet Tuesday morning last I travelled to Cliffoney where the weather matched the mood on the ground in the North Sligo village.
Locals were digesting the news that the future of the Post Office was under threat. The biggest fear was that the closure of this essential service would have a domino effect.
In the local ‘Gala’ shop as people popped in for their weekly copy of the Sligo Champion, the talk was of little else.
Proprietor Proloy Banerjee who only last year took over the shop was extremely concerned not only for his future but for the future of the whole village.
“The Post Office brings people into the village. I would be worried about the knock on effect on my business. We are new here and it takes time to build a business. I would be concerned about a backlash. If I don’t get the customers, I will have to close down,” he says.
Proloy who along with his business partner Terins Jose employs five people locally goes so far as to say: “If the Post Office closes the village will be dead.” One of those employees Anne Hoey agrees: “The first thing to go will be the Friday morning business. We get pensioners from the post office who come in for their shopping then.
“They come from all over north Sligo from remote areas to collect their pension in Cliffoney. Many have to get taxis. This will mean them having to travel much further into Grange. And if they go there, they will shop there too.”
Anne who is from the picturesque village of Cliffoney close to Mullaghmore says: “We feel like we are being forgotten, overlooked. Everything seems to be centred in Grange or bigger urban centres and the smaller villages are forgotten about.”
The worry is etched across Anne’s face as she shakes her head. “We lost our Garda Station, the health centre might go and now the Post Office.
“What we are talking about here is the death of a village. It is hard to sustain business in that situation,” she stresses. The threatened closure will of course effect the most vulnerable in our rural societies as Anne points out: “It’s the pensioners who will be worst hit. We’ve already spoken to them at length and they are very worried.”
Pensioner John Connolly from Cliffoney has no car. He does not use the internet but his local post office is a lifeline to him in so many ways. There, he pays his bills, collects his pension and even drops in for a chat.
“It would be a big loss as I use it regularly. I would come in at least three of four times a week. I’ve been coming here for years. It is a social thing too. I know all the staff.
“I have no car and if the post office goes that will leave me really stuck. I would have to go to Bundoran or pay someone to bring me to the post office,” he explains.
Talking to someone like John it’s difficult not to think that the fabric of rural village life is being disregarded as essential services close and are centralised. It’s people like him who suffer this loss most.
As Sligo TD MarcMacSharry says in relation to threatened post office closures: “The Government has to step in to ensure the fabric of rural communities is preserved by supporting the keeping open of local post offices. From closures of Garda stations, small schools, restrictions on rural planning and now post office closures, this Government are determined to urbanize all communities and systematically wipe out the culture of rural communities.”
He adds: “Communities will not stand for such discriminatory action.”
Indeed the people of Cliffoney got together last Thursday for a public meeting in the village hall to discuss the future of post office services in North Sligo.
The nearby Ballinfull post office is also under threat of closure as the post mistress is due to retire later this month. She is one of many long serving post office staff availing of a retirement package.
Deputy MacSharry claims: “While the provision of a retirement package for long serving post masters and mistresses is welcome, the agreement between The Postmasters Union and An Post must not be used to enforce post office closures in rural communities.
“It’s now clear that the agreement struck between them is a covert plan to shut hundreds of post offices nationwide under the cover of providing a retirement package to retiring post office masters.
“A retirement package is both necessary and deserved but to use it as a tool to further undermine the fabric of rural Ireland is a disgrace.”