North Cork Independent Cllr. John Paul O’ Shea today (24th February 2014) got the full support of Cork County Council in requesting An Post and the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources to place additional service contracts such as motor taxation, extension to current banking transactions, household and hospital charges in our local post offices in order to secure the future of the post office network nationwide.
The Irish Postmasters Union commissioned Grant Thorton to carry out a review of potential service contracts that could be placed in our local post offices in order to secure the future of the post office network which has in excess of 1,100 post offices nationwide.
Commenting on today’s debate within the council chambers, Cllr. O’ Shea said “It is important to ensure the long term sustainability of the post office network in Ireland and to do this, we needed to identify the resources and capabilities of our post offices. This report clearly identifies that the network of post offices right across the country is ideally placed to take on additional Government service contracts such as motor taxation, extension to current banking transactions, household and hospital charges. The post office has a strong brand presence in many communities with significant goodwill and trust attached to the postmasters and postmistresses that provide this service on a daily basis to our communities”.
Cllr. O’ Shea added “What we are seeking from today’s motion is a commitment from the Government to work with An Post and the Irish Postmasters Union in order to set out a detailed plan in how additional government service contracts can be put through post offices in order to sustain their viability into the future. The post office is ideally situated in the heart of communities and has a proven track record on service delivery. The post office network has successfully delivered the social welfare contract for a number of years now, but we cannot be so reliant on one service. We need to place additional services in our post offices in order to make it easier for consumers who need to avail of these services to do so in their local post office”.
This very issue is to be raised in the Dail on Wednesday of this week under a private members motion headed by the Technical Group. It is vital our TDs will vote for this motion requesting the Government to place additional service contracts such as motor taxation, extension to current banking transactions, household and hospital charges in our local post offices in order to secure the future of the post office network nationwide. We will all be keeping an eye on this motion in order to see how our TDs vote!
