Post Office staff bemoan archaic conditions
A group of up to 50 people representing four post offices in north Cork said dozens of rural post offices around the country which have not been automated, will not benefit from An Post’s new banking service, which will be rolled out next month.
Supporters, who want to safeguard the future of Lombardstown, Ballyclough, Shanballymore and Glanworth post offices, stood outside the Dáil and demanded Government-backed investment in technology for the network.
An Post and Fortis, Belgium’s biggest financial-services company, have combined in a €112 million joint-venture to offer savings and investment products through the An Post network from next month.
But third generation post-mistress Catherine Healy-Byrne, who has managed Lombardstown post office for the last 20 years, said her branch was one of dozens that cannot benefit.
Standing outside the Dáil yesterday, she said her branch’s computer was not linked to the national system and she saw no future for her post office without automation.
“I want to improve the business for An Post. If we were computerised we could increase the business. I will stay as long as I can balance my own books. But without the computer there won’t be a future,” she said.
She said rural communities traditionally have the church, the school, the GAA and the post office as their cornerstones: “If one of those cornerstones is removed, it will isolate rural people even more,” she said.
She called on voters to harass politicians on the issue when they come to their doors.
John Paul O’Shea, a spokesperson for the Save Lombardstown Post Office Action Committee, said if rural branches were computerised, they could offer a wider range of services.
“This is an issue that affects hundreds of thousands of people countrywide and we need to make our feelings known on the subject.”
Meanwhile, the number of post offices has reduced from 1,800 to 1,300 in the last seven years.
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