Fears over post office closures
Speaking at the opening of Muintir’s 70thTH national conference in Ballykisteen, Co Tipperary, she said post offices were an intrinsic part of the social fabric of many rural areas and their future viability could not be viewed in purely economic terms alone.
Ms O’Doherty said that already some 400 sub-post offices had closed since 2002 and a further 300 are expected to close in the near future: “The proposed liberalisation of all postal services by 2009 represents a major challenge to An Post but the company must not simply sacrifice the so-called non-economic outlets as a cost-cutting measure.”
She said the lack of postal and associated services to older people or people who did not have their own transport would cause major hardship and difficulty: “I do not accept the official view that there cannot be any subsidies to maintain rural post offices. Subsidies should and must be provided if necessary to computerise those sub-post offices which do not have a major throughput of business.”
