Union claims postal service is at breaking point

The union which represents post masters has claimed the sector is at crisis point, and it is calling on both the Minister for Communications and An Post to take action.

A report on the future of the Irish Post Office network was completed in July, but has still not been received by the Irish Postmasters Union.

The IPU says action is needed soon if post offices are to be saved.

General Secretary John Kane says postmasters can't meet the cost of running their offices, are now resigning on a daily basis.

“The problem we're having is more and more of our members are resigning,” he says. “They just cannot keep their offices open on the basis of the income they're currently getting from an Post. I think the sector has long reached crisis point.

"I mean the post office network has been at crisis point for years. It has been seriously under resourced, it has been heavily subsided by individual postmasters and that situation just can't go on any longer.”