More than 500 post offices are at risk of closure if the government continues to move to electronic payments.

Postmasters have asked ComReg to intervene to protect phone customers’ ability to receive paper bills.

Postmasters have warned the future of 400 small post offices remains under threat, despite the announcement An Post is poised to retain a contract worth €58m per annum to handle social welfare payments.

Four hundred post offices could be put out of business if the Government moves social welfare payments to a purely electronic system, it has been warned.

Failure to renew An Post’s contract for social welfare payments in the coming weeks could lead to the immediate closure of 400 post offices and the loss of hundreds of jobs.

Post offices could be transformed into mini Garda bureaux under proposals to save the country’s struggling network.

Post offices could be transformed into mini garda bureaux under new proposals to save the country’s struggling network.

The Government is being called on to put in place a strategy to ensure the long-term survival of the post office network.

Savings of €53m could be made for taxpayers by handing over additional services such as motor tax and household charge levies, among others, to post offices.

The Government could achieve savings of close to €80m by outsourcing their payments and transactions to the post office network, the consultancy firm Grant Thornton has claimed.

An Post has defended the closure of rural post offices, despite widespread criticism over the lack of consultation with local communities.

Tens of thousands of homeowners entitled to waivers for the household charge face fines if they fail to register for the levy despite being exempt from it.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has defended the Government’s handling of the introduction of the household charge, despite confusion among the public over payment methods.

Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore has ruled out an extension to the registration deadline for the household charge.

The Irish Postmasters' Union has today expressed its astonishment that the public has not been given the option to pay the household charge in post offices.

Post offices should be placed at the centre of the Government’s plans to provide bank accounts to people who have no access to the banking system, according to the Irish Postmasters’ Union.

TWO elements of infrastructure which have undergone major change in rural Ireland over the past decade have been post offices and pubs. Both are regarded as integral to rural communities, acting on one level as essential to warding off rural isolation.

UP TO half of the country’s 1,100 post offices will be forced to close if An Post loses the contract for making social welfare payments, the Irish Postmasters’ Union has said.

The union representing post office workers has warned that hundreds of Post Offices across the country will close if An Post loses the contract for making Social Welfare payments.

The General Secretary of the Irish Postmasters Union has said he is not surprised that An Post says it needs to axe 2,000 jobs by 2015 as a result of the recession.

THE Government should give the country’s 1,100 post offices a key role in the shakeup of the banks, the country’s postmasters have said.

Postmasters have called on the Government to give them a major role in a reformed banking sector.

Post Offices want to be central to any reform of the banking system in Ireland.

The Irish Postmasters’ Union (IPU) has today criticised ESB Electric Ireland’s requirement that customers use direct debits and e-statements in order to avail of the discounts that were announced yesterday.

BUSINESSES have joined forces in Limerick to raise €200,000 for cancer treatment equipment.