THE news that the price of the basic stamp is to increase from €1.10 to €1.25 from March 1st was poor timing from An Post this week – in the same week as many small post offices lost their sorting facilities.
In West Cork, three post offices on the Mizen peninsula have seen seven staff relocated to the new Skibbereen sorting office.
This is worrying for those on the peninsula who have described it as another nail in the coffin of smaller post offices.
While on the surface, it does not look like a major downgrading of services, it will mean a lot less footfall into the offices and, as a result, into the towns they serve, and less revenue for the already hard-pressed postmasters and postmistresses.
Combined, it adds up to quite a major blow to these little towns and plays into the hands of those claiming the government is turning its back on rural Ireland.
But coming in the same week as An Post has announced a very unpopular and substantial rise in the price of the humble stamp, it would appear to be a major PR disaster that could have been so easily avoided
