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Up to 200 post offices are at risk of closing in the next 12 months unless the Government puts financial support in place, an Oireachtas committee has heard.<\/p>\nUp to 200 post offices are at risk of closing in the next 12 months unless the Government puts financial support in place, an Oireachtas committee has heard.<\/p>\n
The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) laid bare the impact if the Government does not continue with the transformation payments.<\/p>\n
The group told the Oireachtas Transport Committee that up to 25 per cent of the entire postmaster network could be gone in the next year.<\/p>\n
Irish Postmasters\u2019 Union general secretary Ned O\u2019Hara said that, as more postmasters retire, the service will become \u201cnon-existent\u201d.<\/p>\n
Postmasters are contractors and are paid for the transactions in post offices.<\/p>\n
Transformation fees are to expire at the end of June, and postmasters have warned that the service faces a cliff-edge if the Government does not put in place a financial intervention.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Hara said: \u201cThere is a cliff face in front of the Post Office Network coming at the end of June.<\/p>\n
\u201cDecisions need to have been made and actions taken before then.\u201d<\/p>\n
A report commissioned by Grant Thornton warned of \u201cunrestrained post office closures\u201d after June 2021.<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir analysis recommended an annual Public Service Obligation (PSO) of 17 million euro, which it said would represent value for money for the State and provide a return of between 334 euro and 776 million euro,\u201d Mr O\u2019Hara added.<\/p>\n
Fianna F\u00e1il Senator Timmy Dooley said that communities across Ireland have seen the \u201creally negative impact\u201d of post office closures.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is effectively removing a key core component of any village,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is difficulty in maintaining a post office purely based on transactions because people are doing a lot more online, but the fact is that there are still some people who need that face to face opportunity to do transactions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile that demand exists, there is an encumbrance on the State to provide the service.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe real crisis is now and this money needs to be in place by June.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnless that is in place, the network will continue to diminish, and we will see the demise of many more post offices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe only way to proceed is to make a very clear demand of Government that a public service obligation be put in place as a first measure to ensure we don\u2019t see the closures of any more posts office.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to see the hemorrhage stopping and draw a line under the closures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Fine Gael\u2019s Joe Carey said he is a \u201cstrong advocate\u201d of the public service obligation.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the only option available now to sustain the current chain of post offices we have,\u201d Mr Carey added.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is an urgency in this, we need to stand by the postmaster office unions.\u201d<\/p>\n
The committee was told that since the Grant Thornton report was completed at the end of last year, 11 post offices have since closed.<\/p>\n
Mr O\u2019Hara said that postmasters make about 95 per cent of all post offices nationally.<\/p>\n
He said he believes over the next 12 months, up to 200 postmasters will retire.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe risk is that they will retire from the busier post offices, and they are the backbone of the network, and if that backbone is broken, the model is broken,\u201d Mr O\u2019Hara added.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will be non-existent.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s Darren O\u2019Rourke said: \u201cWhen anybody thinks of the fabric of Irish communities and what makes up an Irish community, in terms of infrastructure, the post office is very high on that.\u201d<\/p>\n