Daly wants proper debate on rural post offices

Fine Gael General Election candidate, Cllr Richard Daly, has called for a fresh debate on the role played by the rural post office, and particularly in South Kildare. He said the review of post offices being currently carried out by An Post must take into account the crucial role played by such offices in rural Ireland.

‘’It can be very easy for people who don’t understand the dynamic of the local post office to be ruthless in deciding its future. But it’s my view, and it’s also the view of the Fine Gael Party, that the rural post office plays an enormous role in community life and without it, local communities struggle to survive.

‘’I have seen at first hand the devastation caused in areas where local post offices close. People in South Kildare understand that the post office has a place at the heart of its community and it provides a vital social outlet for people to meet and exchange views on a variety of issues. For many people, it’s their only opportunity to meet their neighbours and have some social interaction and the demise of the post office is extremely concerning for the people of South Kildare.

“Recent post office closures have left a real need and void and created huge difficulties for elderly people in particular. Some have no transport and others live alone and it really impacted on them. That’s what must be avoided in the new review.”

Cllr Daly said that any review must be guided by proper planning. “Maintaining an appropriate service is vital but the viability of add-on services must be taken into account as part of an overall strategy. The current evaluation of post offices being carried out by An Post should not arbitrarily conclude with large-scale indiscriminate post office closures.

‘’What is of critical importance here is the need to ensure the retention of the optimum number of post offices to provide an adequate network throughout the country thus enabling the service that extends on a daily basis into every part of the country both urban and rural,’’ said Cllr Daly.