*Cllr Tom O’Callaghan.
IRELAND’s post office network is going from “crisis to crisis”, postmasters based in Co Clare have said.
Clare County Council have written to the Minister for Communications, Eamon Ryan (GP) following a proposal by Cllr Tom O’Callaghan (FF) who flagged concerns over the post office network’s long-term viability.
He highlighted, “To date the network is dependent on a €10 million subsidy from government that will cease in two years ensuring stability. A long-term viable model needs to be implemented to protect county Clare’s network within both urban and rural communities into the future”.
Speaking on the subject at a sitting of the County Council, O’Callaghan who is Chairman of the Independent Postmasters Group shared his disappointment at having to highlight the topic again, “it is like groundhog day in a way”.
Prior to his co-option to the Council in December 2022, Tom had previously gave presentations to the local authority on the need to support the network and introduce a new funding model, his first presentation to a meeting of the Council was in 2013.
Kildysart native O’Callaghan warned, “within two years time the subsidy keeping the post office going will cease, when we had the COVID crisis and we look at the role of the post office in the communities, we can no longer pay lip service to the realities or gravities of the network”.
Government must come up with “a sustainable plan,” the former Chairman of Fianna Fáil’s Ennis Comhairle Ceantair stressed. “It is costing €10m, look at the other models around,” he added.
Seconding the proposal was Cllr Shane Talty (FF) who runs post offices in Ennistymon and Lahinch. “I have two post offices which are only kept open and subsidised by the €10m subsidy,” he revealed. “It has gone from crisis to crisis,” Talty remarked. He stressed the need for a proper plan to be implemented. “It impacts so many small communities,” he said of the post office network.
Expertise within the Chamber was referenced by Cllr Gerry Flynn (IND). “It is great having someone who lobbied us for many years have the knowledge in this area. Look at how services have been taken away from communities, I do buy into conspiracy theory that the Government are denuding communities of services knowing they will die off”.
Doonbeg businesswoman Cllr Rita McInerney (FF) who runs a post office within her store noted that An Post have done “a very good job of increasing their business, a lot of work is done on the e-commerce side of things yet they are looking to reduce the amount of size, they want to create a profitable business but are ignoring their social responsibility”.
She continued, “I had an agreement with An Post for lodgements, it was very beneficial for me and businesses who are a far distance from a bank, it is very difficult for small businesses to be carrying cash, it allowed us to bank quite competitively in An Post but that service is ending”. This means they can’t lodge rates which will send people back to the banks. “There is business there for An Post but it seems sinister how services like that have been withdrawn from the An Post network,” Cllr McInerney added.
Further support was voiced by Cllr PJ Kelly (FF). He said of O’Callaghan, “he has a long history of fighting for rural post offices and I fully support his effort. I hope the matter will be taken up by members of the Oireachtas”.
Rural post offices could be equipped to take over the mantle in sorting driver licences to further validate their importance, Cllr Pat O’Gorman (FF) suggested. Surprise was expressed by Cllr Pat McMahon (FF) that nobody in Government circles has taken up the issue and fixed it.
Fellow Cratloe man, Cllr PJ Ryan (IND) maintained the Government were not exerting their authority. “It is the tail wagging the dog, the banks are telling the Government what to do, they need to think outside the box and look after rural communities”.
Similar sentiments were expressed by Cllr Johnny Flynn (FG). “Post offices like our libraries have huge trust from the public who value them far more than the Government. They bailed out the banks but since then they have withdrawn services from the counter”. He believed the Government needed to deal with the power of banks in the Irish market.
Addressing the meeting, Cllr Joe Killeen (FF) recalled that he built a house in the 1980s when the interest rate stood at fifteen percent, “the biggest problem now is the cost of a house. €3,000 at four percent interest is €12,000 alone. There is a huge amount of money sitting in accounts which is not generating interest or not supporting Ireland INC, if the money can be diverted into schemes, €6,000 interest a year rather than €12,000. It means the affordability of housing is increased”.
Lack of competition in the banking sector needs to be probed by the Central Bank and its watchdog, Cllr O’Callaghan concluded. “I believe the banking sector is overly concentrated and deprives customer the healthy competition”.
