Decision on post office closures at end of the month
Communities across County Cavan must wait until the end of the month to find out if their post offices are among 161 set to be closed nationwide under a new retirement scheme brokered between An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union.
Five Post Offices in Cavan are among those rumoured to be closing their doors. They are: Killeshandra, Kilnaleck, Corraneary, Mountnugent and Swanlinbar.
Celt reporters, meanwhile, travelled to some of the towns affected this morning to speak to people on the ground about the importance of the service in their communities (see Wednesday's paper for full report).
This pensioner from Swanlinbar was dismayed at any suggestion his local post office would close.
Meanwhile, butcher Nudie McGovern in O'Reilly's Family Butchers in Killeshandra said that the post office was vital to footfall in the town.
Voluntary retirement
An Post, meanwhile, has confirmed that as part of its 'Post Office Transformation Programme' and €50m investment in the Post Office network, 161 postmasters have applied for the company’s voluntary retirement package, resulting from the recent agreement with the Irish Postmasters’ Union (IPU).
A statement issued read: 'This will likely result in the closure of 161 post offices out of a network of 1,111 post offices. The remaining network of 950 post offices is the largest retail network in Ireland. The list of post offices closing will be issued at the end of August once the details have been confirmed with each postmaster.'
An Post has also reaffirmed its commitment that communities of over 500 people will have a post office and that over 95% of the population will be within 15km of at least one post office. To meet the above coverage commitments, An Post will also publish at the end of August a target list of new post office locations.
A new modern retail contract, which is being rolled out to postmasters, will also include lunchtime opening.
Commenting on today’s news, Debbie Byrne, MD of An Post Retail said:
An Post has also said that, in many of the locations where postmasters wish to retire, services such as stamps, bill payment, mobile top-up and TV Licence renewal will continue to be available through the PostPoint counter facility in a local shop.