It’s been revealed that another two post offices in Tipperary are set to close.
That brings to 8 the number of closures in the county – with the latest hit in Coolbawn and Upperchurch.
The head of An Post is defending his decision to close 159 Post Offices around the country – 8 of which are in the Premier county.
CEO David McRedmond says the branches he’s shutting are in remote areas that do very little business.
Critics claim the closures will leave many rural residents with long commutes to their nearest office.
But Mr Redmond says the savings will help bring better services to those that remain.
He explains how they chose which Post Offices to shut down:
The post office closures hitting Tipperary and many areas of rural Ireland are as a result of post masters and mistresses retiring, or taking up redundancy packages.
The 8 in Tipperary set to close are in Ballingarry, Clogheen, Littleton, Templetuohy, Newcastle, Gortnahoe – and now Upperchurch and Coolbawn.
Jim O’ Dwyer has been the postmaster in Upperchurch for more than 50 years – and his family have run the post office in the village for 132 years.
His son Conor told Tipp FM’s Sarah O’ Dwyer why their family chose to cease trading…
Cllr Joe Hannigan is the postmaster in Coolbawn, which is also set to close, as he’s chosen to accept An Post’s redundancy package.
He says it’s not viable to keep the business open – with a basic rate of 2 euro 50 c per hour coming from the company for running the facility.
There are just 10 people collecting their pension at that location, and Cllr Hannigan says there’s a possibility they could lose even more business in the coming year…
