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TODAY, THE IRISH Postmasters’ Union (IPU) announced that it was withdrawing from current talks with An Post, at a critical stage in the future of the post office network in Ireland.
An Post, meanwhile, has said the talks “have been most productive and positive”.
Postmasters also picketed outside the Department of Communications today, urging the government to take a more hands-on approach to provide solutions that will mean post offices don’t close en masse.
They may not have gained access to the building – unlike a recent protest at another government department – but the union did drop off a letter detailing how and why it thinks the government should urgently intervene.
So what’s going on here? And why do postmasters fear that they’ll lose their businesses?
Postmasters are, in effect, self-employed private sector workers in that they win a contract from An Post and then take responsibility for operating the business as a franchise.
An Post furnishes them with an income that corresponds to how much business the office does.
Each transaction – be it a social welfare payment, a stamp sold or a parcel sent – means an extra bit of income for the postmaster who must then use this income to pay wages for staff, pay rent and run the business.
Over the last few decades, however, there has been a shift away from the core service the post office had provided for people.
People can now pay bills online, send emails instead of letters and have their welfare payment paid directly into their bank account.
While not a death-knell for the post offices, there is a recognition among the people who run these businesses that they need to adapt, and offer different services, in order to secure their livelihoods and their future.
While the plight of rural post offices and the risks they face have been well documented, urban postmasters told TheJournal.ie in March that they too may face closure if serious changes are not made.
The signs from An Post so far, however, have not been encouraging from the postmasters’ point of view.
The head of An Post told RTÉ’s Prime Time in April that 265 post office branches serve “no discernible area of the population”.
CEO David McRedmond warned that “the whole system could collapse” if changes are not made and said that the company had to “be real” about its prospects.
There appears to be a degree of acceptance from postmasters that some offices will have to close as, this week, IPU general secretary Ned O’Hara said that an agreement needed to be reached with An Post for an “exit process for offices which are not financially viable”.
Quite a bit actually.
In January 2016, a report commissioned by the government on how the post office network could be saved was published. The Bobby Kerr report, as it is known, outlined a series of measures that post offices could use to win new business and protect their incomes.
Among its 23 recommendations were measures such as extended opening hours, a basic payment account for social welfare recipients, introducing ATMs and offering a credit union structure to provide credit.
To bring in the measures that postmasters want, they say it’ll require an investment from the government of €56 million over four years.
O’Hara said: “An Post are in a difficult financial situation. They have no money.
Someone needs to invest in the business. The government is a major shareholder, and we think that they should be able to provide it.
Little progress has been made on implementing these recommendations, however, so far. Postmasters staged a protest outside – and inside – the GPO in March to call for widespread uptake of these suggestions.
They made their point by marching inside the foyer of the GPO on O’Connell Street, delivering a letter asking An Post CEO David McRedmond to urgently meet with the postmasters’ union to discuss how the post office network should operate going forward.
Since May, the postmasters’ union has been in talks with An Post on bringing in essential measures, including offering a new current account.
This new current account – or Smart Account – has been positioned as an alternative to customers getting money transferred straight to their bank accounts and still using An Post services.
As An Post operates some of its own offices, outside of contracted postmasters, the Smart Account has been rolled out in around 200 offices so far.
Postmasters, however, say that the Smart Account, on its own, is bad for business and would only make financial sense if it was done alongside the other recommendations in the report.
However, the IPU has decided to withdraw from these talks, telling members that there was “no prospect of agreement at present”.
The outlook in this regard is not good.
Post offices have been steadily closing for years. In 1992, there were nearly 2,000 post offices across the country. A quarter of a century later, that figure is just over 1,100.
Postmasters fear that as many as 700 post offices could go in the near future.
At the opening of talks in May, IPU general secretary Ned O’Hara said: “An Post needs to embrace these types of opportunities and look ambitiously towards what the network can deliver for communities, rather than trying to push through closures.
We need to move ahead with delivering motor tax and basic banking services – within an agreed plan for the future. We also need to look at how post offices can support more public and financial services – as well as transport, tourism and training in communities.
Today, O’Hara told reporters at the protest that they walked away from these talks because “nothing is happening”.
“We don’t want to give the false impression that something is happening, when it’s not,” he said.
With talks at an impasse with An Post, postmasters are looking to the government to provide some fresh impetus, and funds.
The responsibility for post offices in the government rests with the Department of Communications. It wasn’t always clear which Minister was in charge here, however.
Then-Minister of State for Regional Economic Development Michael Ring drew a withering response when he told the Dáil he had no statutory responsibility for An Post. Eventually it was clarified that it was Minister Denis Naughten who has the responsibility under Leo Varadkar’s government.
Tramore postmaster Sean Martin said that they are trying to get the government to “sit around the table and plan a viable future for the post office network over the next five years”.
“If we don’t do that, it’s imminent that the network will collapse,” he said.
A lot of post offices are subsidising their communities. The money handed out locally is spent locally… It needs investment now.
Ciaran McEntee, postmaster in Threemilehouse in Co Monaghan, said that the post office is beneficial to other businesses in the area and that effect becomes tangible when an office closes down.
He said: “They took a post office out of the town just up from me, and a shop and a butchers closed. That just shows what happens when a post offices goes.”
When approached for a comment from TheJournal.ie, a spokesperson for An Post said: “Our discussions with the IPU have been most productive and positive, and we look forward to resuming them as quickly as possible.”
This is at odds with O’Hara’s description of the talks having “gone nowhere”.
A spokesperson from the Department of Communications, meanwhile, sent this statement to TheJournal.ie:
The Department of Communications is aware that the Irish Postmasters Union is holding a protest outside the Department’s Head Office on Adelaide Road today. The Minister is attending Cabinet so is therefore unable to speak with the group however he has asked his advisor to meet with the members and receive their letter for his attention.
Solidarity-PBP TD Bríd Smith was at today’s protest. She said that “it’s very evident” that since the responsibility was switched to Minister Naughten, that the issue of post offices is like a “football kicked around the place and no one wants to deal with it”.
“It’s a political poisoned chalice,” she said.
Smith said that the Kerr recommendations are considered and fair, and that postmasters had agreed to take a hit to secure the long-term future of the business.
She added that “no one is taking responsibility” and said that this issue is being dealt in a similar manner to the way the Bus Éireann dispute was handled earlier this year.
Paddy O’Shea has been a postmaster for 37 years in Upper Aghada, near Midleton in Cork.
He estimates that, at the next count, his wages may have dropped by up to €10,000.
“If it keeps going this way, people will give up the post office,” he said. “They’ll have to.”
[If my office closed] I wouldn’t know what to do to tell you the truth. I feel terrible about it. Nearly everyone who comes in is a friend. They come in and we can help them out. It’ll be a huge loss.
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If they extended their opening hours and remained open during lunch instead of taking their hour and a quarter lunch break maybe they’d get more business. An Post is now required to act as a business and trade responsibly. Paying people to maintain an office that does very little business isn’t an option anymore. They’re not a charity and shouldn’t be expected to act as one.
@An bhearna: exactly, it’s madness they close at lunch, staggered breaks- most of us have to do it!
@An bhearna: my post office in edenmore
does not close for lunch
@An bhearna: my local post office is open 6 days a week including saturday, and is open from 9am to 5:30pm. What more do you want?
@An bhearna: Your a great spokesperson for An Post but ill informed….. Most rural post offices are operated by a single Post Master or Mistress. They open the office from 9am to 5.30pm each day with a one hour lunch break. Would you suggest they not be allowed a lunch?
Their business has been stripped away in recent years to the point where offices are almost unsustainable. Good luck joining the queues in the company run offices in the major towns when your local post office closes its door…
@Tony Maguire: Most of those Post Masters referred to in the article work alone. How does a single person in a rural post office stagger their lunch break to suit you?
@Ed: who the hell needs an hour for lunch anymore????
Well Done Post Masters. We need you in rural regions also for banking and other services. Maybe too internet services for the elderly….
@gregory: but not one every 2-3 miles apart….
@Paul: get real
If post offices close, that’s sad, but it’s their own fault. They have had years to improve their services
I bought a postcard and stamp recently, two euro and seven euro send a registered letter.
An Post could be Ireland’s premier courier service provider if they wanted. They have the offices, technology, transport and staff.
Time is not on your side. Brainstorm and implement the provision of essential services that will support An Post, its employees, your customers, our cities, towns and rural Ireland.
@Andi Black: The post offices have no say over the cost of a stamp or any parcel delivery. They are independent of An Post. An Post simply licence them to operate as points of contact between An Post and the public.
@Andi Black: The rural post offices have NO say into the services they offer, that is decided by An Post. Rural post offices have been campaigning for years for the implementation of extra services but have been ignored by An Post.
The banks want the SW and pension money going through their hands. The banks will get what they want as long as FF and FG rule.
@Dave Doyle: or maybe people prefer the convenience of modern transactions like electronic transfers, instead of queuing for ages in an antiquated building.
@Dave Doyle: we would be a lot worse with sf independent. As far as I See their for to inrich non nationalist. I am a independent and shin . But I be changing my support. For new.
@Patricia Cooney: Do you speak english as well
@Hurt Stoogie: I’m ready to jump ship from anti-cash Bank of Ireland. I saw what actual retail banking looks like in Canada, and it’s a lot closer to what it’s like at the post office than at Bank of Ireland.
Some people just don’t understand the concept of progress, next they’ll be looking to reopen the local blacksmiths and tannery.
@Atheos Euripides: It seems you don’t either. The government forces people to use certain services on one hand (e.g. collection of pensions through the PO, or accessing revenue online) while at the same time forces the closure of those services (POs, etc) or fails to invest in them (internet access). That’s not progress. That’s marginalisation.
@Atheos Euripides:
Now that you mention it!
@Atheos Euripides: My sentiments exactly……………..bring back the horse and cart I say…
Use it or lose it.
@P.J. Nolan: It’s stuck in the letter box lol.
A few Months back they jacked up the price of a stamp from 72c to 1Euro.
I felt at the time this was the beginning of a “death by a thousand cuts”.the joe Duffy show was inundated with people saying how they were going to cease sending Christmas/Birthday cards etc. Maybe they brought a lot to offer this on themselves.
@Frank Dubogovik: €1 to have a letter delivered to the door of the recipient anywhere in the country, in most cases the next day. I’d call that good value.
@An bhearna: good for you…but it’s become an “optional”sevice in most cases………don’t try and sell me a yarn that postal quantities haven’t collapsed since they RAMPED up the cost to the end-user
@Frank Dubogovik: postal quantities haven’t collapsed because of a rise in the price of a stamp. They’ve collapsed as a result of e-mail. Still €1 to have a letter delivered anywhere in the country mostly the next day is exceptional value. You wouldn’t get a cup of tea for that.
@An bhearna: 1st basic of business is about “supply and demand”….if the demand for your service/product is decreased it is counterproductive to ramp up the cost of your service/product as an attempt to “recoup” any losses. You might find it earth shattering fantastic that a letter will get to its destination for 1Euro but if the need/demand for sending such letters has collapsed ( with email/smartphones etc.) That certainly doesn’t make the basic business plan/foundation viable or worthwhile.
@Frank Dubogovik: the old saying “To mean to send a christmas card” springs to mind. 1 euro. Get over it
@Frank Dubogovik: Your mixing up two different entities. An Post sets postal rates, the rural post office and the person that runs it is a totally separate entity.
For some time now, I’ve seen the closure of Bank Branches as a way of “saving the Post Office”. I think that allowing people to carry out their “Banking Business”, when these Branches are being closed down, and services being withdrawn, from their Customers, in the Post Offices is “the way to go”. “Rural Ireland” needs the services of one. Neither the Banks, nor “The Department of Social Protection” can be demanding that payments be lodged into Bank Accounts, while at the same time, Branches are being closed down. How will people, and more specifically our “Technologically Illiterate Old Age Pensioners” get their Money, or pay their Bills, and so on, if they can’t go anywhere, do carry out withdrawals?
Rural post offices should be all put into local supermarkets as many already have. The financials do not warrant an independent business. Things change with time and the post office needs to adapt, reducing the fixed charge of managing a post office will give them an opportunity to survive
@Nick Allen: BOLLO…. local POs are the mainstay of rural communities
@Brendan Bernes: “local POs are the mainstay of rural communities” – I have to ask if you are being sarcastic here? I lived in rural Ireland all my life, as have my parents and grand parents. I can count on one hand the amount of times any of us are in PO each year.
The fetishising of the PO (as well some other organisations) has to stop. The reality is that if the PO was really the hub of the community it would still be in business. The real reason rural PO’s re going out of business is that they are not needed and nobody can be bothered to use them as there are better ways to do 95% of the services they offer
the majority of welfare payments like jobseekers …are made through the post office except disability,pensions…bank payments stopped few years ago to cut down on fraud like making sure people were residing in the country!!
Amazing really how rationalization often results in irrational outcomes.
@Emmet Dillane:
What’s the irrational outcome?
Said it before and I’ll say it before… why not combine rural post offices with Garda stations?
I got a present of an post voucher and went to pay my tv license and an post don’t accept them as payment. ::: crazy
Motortax online … getting driving licence renewed though would be handy. Pps card.
Post offices in Australia have long since diversified and now sell a variety of stationery and electronic goods so they don’t have to rely exclusively on postal income which is dwindling. Not a bad idea
Support your local post office!
Wonder will posh boy Murphy jump on this bandwagon? Then again if there’s nothing in it for him……..
P.Os have been sold out by the govt, and political parties. They were too quiet and got fobbed off by reports and the usual political spin. Is it now too late?
They should have done protest like those against the water charge.
Next privatisation of the post office? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transatlantic_Trade_and_Investment_Partnership
“Chapter V contains eight sections with particular rules for different economic sectors. Section I, articles 29 to 31, set out principles that states must follow in licensing private corporations, and state that requirements that are not proportionate to a reviewable public policy objective are contrary to the treaty. Section II contains general provisions. Section III covers computer services. Section IV, articles 35 to 39, cover liberalisation of postal services.” TTIP was replaced with CETA, So it might be the same under CETA?
have your say