Rural post offices’ future: Technology sounds last post

Just a month ago postmasters protested at Dublin’s GPO to try to stop the closure of rural post offices which, they say, will “devastate rural Ireland”.

This is a touchstone issue. Rural communities realise that their local post office, one of 1,000 in operation, may not be secure.

The protests are heartfelt but, in the face of huge technological change, they can only be partially successful.

Just as earlier generations protested about the loss of creameries; rural post offices as they are constituted today have a limited future.

There is hardly a service they provide — apart from accepting mail — that cannot be conducted on a home computer.

Just like the jobs that President Trump promises to “bring back” but have been lost to automation; the services delivered by post offices can be conducted without the support of a middleman postmaster.

Rather than focus on a legacy service facing obsolescence it might be wise to press for the kind of rural broadband services that makes geography an irrelevance.

The first step would be a Government decision on which minister is responsible for rural broadband — the Minister for Rural Affairs or the Minister for Communications.

Sad though the loss of a rural post office may be universal access to decent broadband will help fill the gap left by a service that loyally served communities since the postal network was established.

Maybe it’s time to embrace the future rather than pretend it — and the changes it will bring — are optional.