Half a million signatures have been collected in support of the Post Office

Half a million signatures, collected across the country, are being presented to the Minister for Communications Alex White this afternoon, demanding action to support and secure the future of post offices.

The Postmasters Union is calling on the Government to keep Social Protection payments through the post office network, rather than transferring them to banks.

IPU General Secretary Ned O Hara has said the Post Offices can play a number of key roles.

“Earlier this year we prepared a six point plan which we issued, now we were looking for a number of issues, we were looking for the Post Office to be recognised as a national asset. It is a national asset, much like the river Shannon is and we think it should be recognised as such,” Mr O’Hara said.

“We are also looking for the role of Post Offices to be secured in relation to delivering social welfare payments and indeed we think we are ideally placed to be the provider of choice for all Government services.”