Post office closures
Madam Editor,
With the announcement in recent days of the proposed closure of 400 post offices across the state, the decline of rural Ireland continues at pace.
The closing down and the gradual withdrawal of vital services, will have a devastating effect on the social fabric of our countryside, and its people.
With the loss of so many of our garda stations, shops, pubs, hotels, food manufacturing units, co-op head-offices, government departments, and the ever reducing services in the health, banking, transport, and farming sectors, the future for the rural parts of our country looks very bleak indeed.
As the powers that be at decision making level seems to want to corral the people living in the regions, into the larger cities and towns.
It was interesting to note that during the past week one garda station was re-opened in our capital city, in the constituency of a government minister. One has to ask the question, where are the government minis- ters of rural Ireland in this whole scenario?, of gradual drip-feed closure of services in the regions. They seem to have - ‘stepped aside’ - and opted out. The silence is deafening.
Whether these decisions are being made in Dublin, Brussels, Paris or Berlin, there seems to be a scorched earth policy where rural Ireland is concerned. If that is the case, perhaps it would be better to put a high fence, or wall around rural Ireland to keep in the wild-life, and Yours Sincerely, Tom Towey, Cloonacool, Co. Sligo.