BY JOE BARRETT
THE future of the post office service in Timahoe hangs in the balance this week.
Over 40 people met at a public meeting (pictured above) in the village on Monday night to express their concern at the news that the post office is set to close on Friday 12 February.
Chairman of the meeting, Dick Miller, described the impending closure as ‘‘a disaster for Timahoe.”
Fine Gael councillor James Daly said: “If the post office could be kept as it is, it would be ideal.”
Kerry native Eoin O’Sullivan, now living locally, said two years ago An Post wanted to close a post office his mother was running outside Kenmare, but locals put pressure on Jackie Healy Rae, the local TD, and eventually had the decision reversed.
“If we put pressure on our TDs, it might work. We want to keep it in the parish,” he said.
There were calls from the floor to invite an area manager to the locality to explain why the post office was closing.
Postmaster Arthur (Atty) Kerr, who has been running the post office in the village for the past nine years, told the meeting that An Post had wanted to close the post office a week earlier, but he had impressed on them to leave it open for another week.
Mr Kerr said An Post was looking for 1,400 redundancies nationwide. He said they were also looking for six redundancies at their sorting office in Portlaoise out of their workforce of 20.
Dick Miller said: “We’re not interested in that. We’re just interested in one thing here. They can do what they want elsewhere.”
One local man said: “It’s not fair on the older people of the area to go to Portlaoise. They’ll end up adding to the queues outside the post office there and getting robbed.”
Mr Miller said: “We should look for a six-month stay on the closure and get as many people in Timahoe to use the post office. If the post office is closed, we’ll lose the shop also.”
Mr Kerr said he had been told in November that An Post was planning on introducing changes to the post office sometime later this year. He said the next he heard from them was around 10 January that it was planned to close on 5 February.
It was at this stage that junior minister John Moloney and Deputy Seán Fleming arrived at the meeting. Minister Moloney announced: “The post office is not going to close down.”
Minister Moloney informed the meeting: “Mr Kerr wants to retire from the business.” He said An Post was prepared to meet people who may be interested in taking up a post office agency in the village.”
Deputy Fleming said similar situations were occurring all over the country where post masters were retiring and agencies were established in their place.
He said: “The ball is very much in the hands of the people of Timahoe. Maybe somebody will be able to take on an agency on commission rather than a fixed salary.” He said agency work would not bring in as much as it would if employed on a fulltime salary with An Post.”
Dick Miller responded: “The total amount anyone would get at the moment is €35 in Timahoe.”
Deputy Fleming said: “The total amount of commission is dependent on the amount of business.”
The meeting was told that those working on commission in an agency received 35c for every transaction.
Deputy Fleming said there was a time when all transactions were conducted across the counter of a post office but now a lot of these have now been centralised and customers can draw funds from ATM machines.
Mr Kerr said: “They came to me that either I go computerised or take a small redundancy package. One or the other. I know nothing about computers. I thought they would have offered me an agency, but they didn’t.”
Deputy Fleming said: “There have been situations where people took redundancies and continued to operate the post offices on an agency basis.”
Mr Kerr responded: “I would be in favour of doing that.”
This did not go down too well with Mr Miller. He said: “We want a full-time post office in Timahoe.”
Minister Moloney insisted: “I haven’t been told that there are plans for An Post to close down the post office in Timahoe. That is not the case. An Post is telling me it is not their policy to close down the office in Timahoe.”
A man in the audience said: “I came here tonight on the understanding that Atty’s post office was to close down. He got an extension of one week. I’m not saying you’re telling fibs John (minister Moloney) about An Post not closing down the post office.”
Eoin O’Sullivan said: “It’s more than a post office. It’s a community centre, the heart of the village. It’s important the post office is kept. If it goes it’ll tear the heart out of the village.”
Mr Kerr said: “I have no problems running it for a few more months, to see how it goes. I’m not going to walk away on the 12th.”
Mr Miller insisted: “We don’t want an agency. Computerisation is not everywhere. There’s post offices working without it, so why the hell can’t we work without it.”
Mr Kerr responded: “I was told by the area manager that every post office will be computerised by the end of 2010.”
The meeting agreed that both TDs would seek a meeting with An Post management to impress on them the wishes of the people at the meeting that it remains open for another six months, find out what supports are being offered to go computerised and what other alternatives are there to keep a post office in the village.
When An Post was contacted, a spokesperson for the company told the Laois Nationalist: “An Post is not closing down the post office, Mr Kerr decided to retire.” He said a severance package had been offered to Mr Kerr. “It was Mr Kerr’s own decision to close the shop and post office.”
He said that, countrywide, 250 post offices were not yet computerised and that it was the company’s intention to upgrade them all. He said: “At this stage there are no plans to offer an agency in Timahoe.”
The company spokesperson said a meeting has been arranged to take place on Friday between the area manager, Mick O’Sullivan, and the two TDs.