An Post: cuts, closures and dearer stamps

IT’S BEEN announced that another sub-post office on the Beara peninsula is to close - the fourth in as many years there.

I’m sure many other sub-offices, and the communities that depend on them, face a similar fate with An Post unwilling to provide a viable grant to private individuals to take on the service.

Meanwhile, An Post wants to close over 55 branch post offices (including Clonakilty) within 12 months, and contract inferior services to private operators - ie, the same sub-office structure that is fast becoming extinct in smaller villages!

To crown it all, An Post wants to raise the price of the standard stamp from 48c to 55c because of its financial difficulties, according to media reports.

Customers, once again, are being fleeced while there is no evidence of an form of ministerial intervention.

Over the last three to four years, there has been an inexplicable and dramatic decline in the profitability of An Post, and this is being used as the excuse for cutbacks, closures and price increases. Is An Post being run into the ground to facilitate a management buyout?

Telecommunications Minister Dermot Ahern should order an investigation of management at An Post.

Cllr Cionnaith Ó Súilleabháin

An Gallán

Cloich na Coillte

Co Chorcaí