Minister: Communities must ‘use or lose’ their Post Offices
The reason that some Post Offices in rural Ireland are in danger of closure is simply down to the fact that less and less people are using them.
That was the view put forward by Community and Rural Affairs Minister, Michael Ring, T.D. when he visited Connemara last week.
“We have to be honest about this”, Minister Ring stated. “An Post does not want to shut post offices; it is the decreasing use of the offices locally that is bringing the threats of closure ever closer.”
Minister Ring was in Clifden to officially open the Connemara Pony Breeders Society Show.
In answering a question about fear of post office closures in rural Ireland, the Minister said: “Look, there are people signing petitions and attending public meetings now who never stood inside the door of their local post office”.
Minister Ring also instanced a village – which he did not name – where half of the people there go to a post office in another town because they do not want to be seen going to the local office getting their “collections”.
He also stated that 80% of driving license applicants now go through that process online.
Minister Ring said that most people would still be within 15 kilometres of a post office even if all of the closures now being mooted were put into effect. “Communities that now have post offices must “use them or lose them” Minister Ring said.
A spate of post office closures – including a number in County Galway – are now in the offing as significant number of local postmasters opt for a severance package equalling two years income.
While An Post say the process – which was agreed with the Postmasters Union – is a “consolidation” of services it is understood that new post offices will not be established in the areas affected.
The policy is to link the area which is losing a post office to the nearest functioning post office in order to underpin a “viable” arrangement. There have been protests about this policy in a number of areas in western counties.
Minister Michael Ring said that there is no blame to be apportioned to postmasters who avail of the retirement package. “Many of them have been putting in long hours and not coming out with a basic wage,” the Minister said. “Nobody can expect people to do that”.
Minister Ring said the public will have to support post offices that are viable or that they will not be there. “It is use them or lose them,” the Minister said.
“I want to see services retained in rural Ireland” stated the Minister for Community and Rural Affairs “but the community has to support them”.
The Minister also had some trenchant words for the banks and what he see’s as their decreasing connection with rural communities.
“We do not now have a banks that support the general public,” Minister Ring claimed. He said that the emphasis on online banking was “not good” and that he was critical of the trend in that direction in banking circles.
Minister Ring said that the Government had agreed not to hinder the establishment of “community banks” but that they would not become involved in funding them. He said that Irish Rural Link is currently formulating strategies that could lead to the formation of such banks.
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