Row leaves rural areas to suffer

IT is an age-old truism that what farmers fear most is not bad weather, or Brussels, or the trade unions — but a postal strike.

Basically, the reason for their apprehension is that disputes of the kind now dragging on for over two months can delay delivery of the cheque in the post.

It is fair to suggest that if the current strike was affecting Dublin or some other major city, it would be settled long ago. No doubt, politicians and the major organisations would create a loud hullabaloo over disruptions in such a basic service.

Regrettably, An Post’s long-running pay row with postmasters remains unresolved even though it has caused widespread delays to deliveries in rural areas for the past nine weeks.

Given the enormous importance of the local post office to small towns, villages and rural areas throughout Ireland, the failure to sort out this dispute before now is frustrating people in outlying areas.

It was against this backdrop that representatives of An Post and the Postmasters’ Union met in Dublin yesterday in an effort to break the deadlock in a pay row that is obviously upsetting the pattern of daily life in rural areas.

Small firms and community groups are now calling for an urgent resolution of this dispute before the Christmas mail rush begins. Since August, postal deliveries from around 600 provincial post offices have been held up for an hour or more every day.

It is difficult to dismiss the widely-held perception among rural communities that the prolonged nature of the so-called “one-hour” dispute is yet another symptom of the neglect of rural Ireland by successive governments. In the public mind, it represents yet another example of skewed policies which have seen the heart ripped out of rural areas.

The local post office, which is much more than a sales outlet for stamps, is a threatened species. Its demise would mean the end of what is essentially a social centre, a meeting place for people, many of them elderly, who live in remote districts and who might not see a neighbour from one end of the week to the other.

Other examples of this blind approach to the regions include the creeping closure of both garda stations and bank branches across the country.

At the same time, there is over-concentration of investment in infrastructure and services in Dublin and its hinterland on the East coast. The effect of this can be seen in the permanent state of gridlock which is bringing traffic to a crawl on the streets of the capital.

Furthermore, for the first time in Ireland, this unbalanced approach to planning and development has spawned a commuter society, sending house prices beyond the reach of what most young people can afford.

Ironically, despite losing 15 million, An Post is paying overtime to postmen working later hours because postmasters are refusing to start work before 8am. Hopefully, despite yesterday’s lack of progress, arbitrator Phil Flynn will succeed in knocking heads together and convince both sides to compromise when they meet late next week.

It is vital to sort out this row which is creating inconvenience for farmers, businesses and, above all, for the people of rural Ireland.