Deputy Casey to meet An Post over Laragh post office

LOCALS WILL HAVE TO TRAVEL 10KM IF JANUARY CLOSURE GOES AHEAD

DEPUTY PAT Casey says the closure of Laragh post office in January will be ‘another hard blow’ for rural Wicklow.

A recent Grant Thornton report predicted that unless fundamental reforms are introduced between 450 and 500 branches will cease to exist by next year.

There has been a post office in the Laragh/Glendalough area for over 100 years, with the service initially taking place in the Glendalough Hotel during the days of the Royal post office.

Deputy Casey says the impending closure of the post office at the end of January will prove a devastating loss.

‘ The residents of Laragh, Glendalough and Trooperstown will now have to travel at least ten kilometres to either Roundwood or Rathdrum to avail of postal services. When you consider that Laragh is adjacent to one of Ireland’s top tourist attractions the lack of imagination in generating additional services for the post office is breathtaking.

‘A lot of people, particularly more elderly citizens, are very reliant on the post office for their transactions. Post offices should not just be judged purely on commercial terms, the social impact on the local community has to be taken into consideration as well. There seems to be no value placed on the social aspect at all.

‘For some people the only day they really get out of the house is when they walk to the post office to get their pension.’

Senior officials from An Post are willing to meet Deputy Casey in early January to discuss Laragh Post Office but the Fianna Fail TD isn’t hopeful of a resolution which will see the post office remain open.

‘ The recent news that two thirds of the 1,131 post offices are ‘economically unviable’ is very bleak. The post offices have been given no support to offer new services or re-invent themselves in the face of changing times.

‘It has long been known that the services offered by the post offices need to be broader and take into consideration the changing needs of the people who use the post office, however the Government have done nothing to help preserve and support the rural post office,’ said Deputy Casey.