Welfare payments to banks is a loony idea

WHAT genius in An Post came up with the idea to encourage social welfare recipients to have their payments made into their bank accounts?

If one is in need of social welfare, is there likely to be a bank account?

A loony idea, but another attempt to dispense with local post offices or reduce their services so that the accountants can then persuade An Post to close them altogether.

Do these money folk have any idea how poorer, older people live, or can they see what small towns and villages will do when deprived of their post offices? People on social welfare are not likely to have private transport to get to the bank and they may not even be welcome in banks.

We have operated a mail order business for 30 years in west Cork and have had unfailingly excellent service from our village post office and, indeed, our head post office in Skibbereen.

If either should be closed, we’d be in the soup, so we admit vested interest, but we think also of our neighbours who would suffer similar hardship were the local post office to close. Let’s have some positive thinking from An Post.

Barbara O’Connell

Jack O’Connell

Schull Books

Ballydehob

Co Cork