Joe Behan - Independent Councillor - Wicklow County Council

Post Price Madness
9th March 2017

The Government is presiding over the destruction of the postal service as we know it with huge price rises for stamps, thousands of job losses in the postal service and predictions of widespread closures of Post Offices around the country.

Recently, TDs voted to allow An Post complete freedom to impose huge increases in postal charges when they must surely know this can only lead to less stamps being sold and deeper difficulties in the future. In the years from 2007 to 2015 mail volumes have decreased by 35% and this trend will only get worse. So what is going on?

I believe that the Government and the An Post have effectively given up on the traditional postal mail service and want to replace it with a parcel courier service. The parcel service is being promoted relentlessly because there is a higher profit per delivery and it will facilitate the use of technology including drone delivery in the future leading to widespread redundancies of postal delivery staff.

The closure of Post Offices is also seen as a way of maximising profits at the expense of the people, particularly those living in rural Ireland. We in County Wicklow are seeing the effects of the closure of 2 Post offices in Laragh and Kilmacanogue and if An Post and the Government get their way, more closures will follow.

If we had a Government who cared more for the social well being of its people and was less fixated about privatisation of every state service, we would be far better off as a nation. As it is, a relatively small injection of funds would reduce the need for savage price rises in the mail service and secure the viability of local post offices in the community but sadly this vision for the welfare of the nation and its people is not in tune with those in power today.

Cllr. Joe Behan
Independent