An Post has battle royale on its hands with unpopular plans to slim down network

IF YOU want to get a sense of just how sensitive the closure of post offices is in rural Ireland consider what happened in the tiny Limerick village of Old Pallas on Tuesday.

Fears that the post office could close prompted 200 people to protest outside it.

And a petition started in the past few days in a bid to retain the facility has generated some 1,000 signatures already.

If that is the response in a hamlet that is little more than a crossroads then An Post has a battle royale on its hands when it seeks to close 400 offices throughout rural Ireland.

People in Old Pallas are incensed that their post office could close. Never mind the fact there is a post office in nearby Pallas Green, which is just 2.5km up the road. Villagers and those living near Old Pallas see the threat to their post office as symptomatic of what they see as the decline and neglect of rural Ireland.

It matters, and it goes deep that they could lose what they see as the beating heart of the village.

There is a post office recorded at Old Pallas in the 1911 Census.

The Old Pallas situation encapsulates the thorny problem of how to deal with the loss-making post office network.

Most rural post offices lose money, but they are hugely in credit when it comes to the social function they perform.

An Post will argue we have too many post offices, many still in the same places since they were first established in the 1800s.

Its aim is to slim down the network so there is a post office servicing every 500 people or more. It wants a situation where most people live within 15km of a post office.

At the moment there are many post offices within 5km of each other.

An Post boss David McRedmond has a commercial mandate. Losses at An Post ballooned to €15.6m last year. That means he is likely to reduce the network down from its 1,100 offices to around 700. This is set to be spread out over around five years. Many places will see the village or town post office moved into a supermarket. Others will lose their service altogether.

None of this will be popular. Mr McRedmond will be only too aware that his closure plans are set to be fiercely resisted.