FIANNA Fáil TD Willie O’Dea says he has been inundated with responses since he put out a call last week for expressions of interest to run Caherconlish Post Office.
“I have been contacted by numerous constituents in the Caherconlish area in the past week who are very concerned at the prospect of their local Post Office facing imminent closure,” he told the Limerick Post.
“I have been liaising on the matter with An Post senior management in Dublin, and they confirmed to me that the current Post Mistress has agreed to keep Caherconlish Post Office open for another month. An Post hoped that this extra time would allow for a potential new operator of the Post Office to emerge.”
Deputy O’Dea announced this extension on Facebook and also put a call out for anybody interested in applying to run the Post Office to contact him and he would put them in touch with An Post.
“I have been overwhelmed with the response, as by the end of the day I had over a dozen expressions of interest and many more have come in since. Some of these individuals have actually run post offices before and I have forwarded all of this information to An Post who are making contact with all the applicants.
“Based on the level and calibre of the interest, I would be confident we can save Caherconlish Post Office from closure.”
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan urged the Junior Minister for Postal Services this week to take every step to ensure that the Post Office in Caherconlish remains open.
“Residents of Caherconlish have been served admirably by their local post office and by their local postmistress who has served in this position for 40 years. This lady, after tremendous service to her community, is retiring and the local post office has again extended her retirement date and is now due to shut this July,” Deputy Quinlivan explained.
“An Post should be ensuring the continued operation of this post office. Caherconlish has a rapidly increasing population rising from 700 people in 2006 to over 1,400 in 2016 and the new census will show additional growth.”
