AN POST has now confirmed that 17 post offices in Donegal will close having accepted the applications from postmasters and postmistresses for exit packages.
Three of these post offices have already closed – Churchill, Quigley’s Point and Ballymagen – and An Post confirmed at the start of the month that they had received applications for exit packages from Ballyliffin, Bunbeg, Burnfoot, Culdaff, Culkeeny, Dunaff, Dunfanaghy, Dunkineely, Gortahork, and Kindrum.
The latest announcement today reveals that a further four branches will close, Burtonport, Brinlack, Meenaneary and Rossnakill.
Donegal will experience the second highest number of closures in the country behind Galway where 18 branches will close. A total of 159 post offices across the country will close as part of the deal struck between An Post and the Irish Postmasters’ Union (IPU) earlier this year.
An Post spent the last few weeks examining the locations of the applications to make sure that they are all locations with populations of less than 500 people and that they are all within 15km of at least one other Post Office.
In Donegal residents in Dunfanaghy will face the longest distance to their nearest post office which will be Falcarragh, 10km away followed by Churchill residents where the nearest branch is 9km away in Kilmacrennan.
The company said all remaining Post Offices 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 said: “An Post is very grateful for the contribution of the Postmasters over so many years. We will work with the communities that they have served to ensure that their needs continue to be met by An Post for the future. The An Post team has done painstaking work combining business and demographic data with extensive local knowledge to produce a network plan which actively supports the future of rural Ireland. We are committed to ensuring a vibrant network for all our customers through investment and the expansion of e-commerce, financial and government services to drive usage and relevancy of the post office in today’s changing environment, she added.
“We fully acknowledge that this process will be difficult for some customers and communities but the end result will be a strengthened, viable post office network serving the needs of our country for the future.”
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.
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