Three post offices to close locally

Three local post offices have been included in a list of 159 post office closures published by An Post.

The post offices concerned are Ballinahown, Cornafulla and Athleague.

The postmasters in the 159 locations will retire as part of agreement concluded between An Post and the Irish Postmasters’ Union (IPU).

According to An Post, the business will transfer to neighbouring post offices.

The list of locations in which postmasters are retiring, and their neighbouring post offices, is available at www.anpost.ie/PostOfficeConsolidation 

All remaining post offices, numbering 960, will benefit from enhanced services and products, new opening hours and an investment package aimed at improving services for customers, driving customer footfall and attracting a wider demographic to ensure that the post office is not just wanted by communities but is indeed relevant and actually used by all. 

Debbie Byrne, Managing Director of An Post Retail thanked the postmasters who have chosen to retire for their great service to An Post and local communities over many years. She also said that An Post was committed to ensuring the sustainability and viability of the Post Office network and would move now to offer more new and innovative services to customers through the reconfigured network.

The newly configured Post Office network is focused on three areas to enhance its relevance and appeal:

· Post offices becoming the backbone of e-commerce: offering the fullest range of parcel and mail services including out-of-hours collections, returns, tracking and redirection

· Community financial services: diversifying and growing financial services products for individuals and SMEs to include loans, credit cards and more foreign exchange products; local banking in association with the major banks and a full range of State Savings products in more locations nationwide than any other organisation

· Post offices becoming One-Stop-Shop for Government Services: extending the range of local and central government services including licensing; payments for local authorities, fines and planning applications; digital ID and authorisations.

Details of An Post’s decisions on future local Post Office services, including Social Welfare payment arrangements, will be posted in each of the listed offices within the next two weeks.

Wherever possible, An Post will also seek to ensure that PostPoint services (such as stamp sales, Bill Payment and Mobile Top-Up) are available from retailers in locations where existing Post Offices are closing.