Phibsborough Post Office should not be sold off

Labour's Senator Marie Sherlock has said that the plans by An Post to contract out its Phibsborough post office service in Phibsborough and to sell the post office building must be stopped.

“For both individual and local businesses in our community Phibsborough post office provides an important and local service. It serves a large population in the Phibsborough and east Cabra area and is a critical resource for  pensioners, social welfare recipients, parcel collection, bin tags purchases and the many residents who depend on the services within the post office. Local businesses also rely on it for mail orders and it was only in recent months that the range of services there expanded to include parcel collection."

An Post’s plan amount to no more than a cost saving exercise. While An Post have told us they wish to contract out the service to a location within the Phibsborough vicinity, we have no guarantee as to the range of services that will be provided or offered into the future and no clarity as to where it will be located.

The reality is that Phibsborough Post Office is already a very busy post office and it would a big blow to the area if the range of services were reduced. Unfortunately, all too often the outcry about the loss of public services only happens when they are lost. I am determined that this does not happen in Phibsborough.

An Post’s current proposals reflect a major lack of imagination with regards to its buildings. The sorting office at the back of the post office has been closed for many years and is now used to house IT equipment. There is no reason why An Post could not look to maximise the use of the building and lease space out to local  buildings as opposed to selling it off.

To date, we have collected over 1200 signatures in the area and we are hosting a public meeting tomorrow night in the Scout Hall in Phibsborough.

“In 2017 An Post also proposed outsourcing services at the Phibsborough post office. We came together as a community and demanded that services remain intact and under the remit of An Post. We were successful then, but only after we fought for it, we need to fight for it again now.

“I understand there is a commitment to contract out the post office service to a private provider but there is no guarantee on the range of services that will be maintained or offered in future and no clarity as to where this will be located."

“We do not want any possible downgrading of our post office service, we do not want to see the building sold off, and we ask that Phibsborough Post Office remains as an An Post operated post office.

No change must take place until we have guarantees that there will no diminution of existing services in the future.

“I am engaging with local residents on this issue, having launched a petition just a few days ago, which has now reached almost 1000 signatures, many have raised their concerns with us. Our last petition on the issue received over 3000 signatures, we expect that as residents learn about the issue, they will join us in demanding that services remain local.

“The original building (built 1883, demolished 1974 and rebuilt in 1975) was inherited by the new Irish State and it must remain in beneficial use for the whole of the community.