Councillor calls for incentive to save post offices

BUDGET INCENTIVES ARE NEEDED Fianna FΡil councillor, Damien Ryan.

Anton McNulty

A FIANNA FΡil councillor has called for incentives to be made in the upcoming budget to allow businesses the opportunity to take over post offices in rural areas.
An Post confirmed that eleven post offices in Mayo were among the 159 nationwide post offices which will close as as part of a retirement deal reached between An Post and the Irish Postmasters’ Union.
The eleven post offices to close in Mayo are in Ballindine, Ballyglass, Belcarra, Carrowmore-Lacken, Cross, Doocastle, Finny, Hollymount, Kilmaine, Partry and Scardaune. The south of the county is the worst affected with up to seven post offices from that region to close their doors, while Cloghbrack and Cornamona on the Galway side of the border are also set to close.
The closure of so many post offices in one region was described as another ‘death knell’ for rural communities by Cllr Damien Ryan, who said there has to be an incentive to keep some of them open.
The Ballinrobe-based councillor and former Cathaoirleach of Mayo County Council, told The Mayo News that for post offices to remain viable, there needs to be incentives for business people to operate them.
“The closure of these post offices are a big blow to the south of the county but there has to be an environment there to attract people to take them over. The budget is only a few weeks away and the government has to put an incentive for people to run post offices. I believe that co-location is the way to go and move post offices into existing facilities in villages, and give people an incentive to run them.
“I believe that there is a facility in everyone of those villages which has seen their post office close, where the post office could be located, if the right environment was there for people to run them,” he said.
Cllr Ryan said he will be raising the closure of the post offices in Mayo at the next meeting of Mayo County Council and will be proposing that co-location would be a viable option for post offices to survive.
An Post said that all the closed post offices were in locations with a population of less than 500 people and that all of the offices that are due to close are within 15km of at least one other post office. Of the Mayo locations which will see their post office closed, people from Finny will have the longest distance to travel. Clonbur, which is 10.2km away, will be nearest post office.

Castlebar rally
On Saturday afternoon, Save Our Rural Services held a rally in Castlebar protesting against the closure of rural post offices and other services. A large crowd attended the rally which marched through Castlebar, and was later addressed by a number of local politicians.
The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) thanked and wished well all Postmasters and Postmistresses across the country who have voluntarily opted to close their post offices.
As part of the agreement with An Post, the IPU said that new services would be rolled out to all remaining post offices. These will include motor tax, vehicle registration and driving licences; identity verification; a foreign exchange card and additional Bill Pay services.