‘This spiral downwards has to be stopped’: Rural decline and Leitrim post office closures raised in Dáil

A Dáil debate on Wednesday, March 4 discussed the closure of post offices across the country, with 257 closures having taken place in the last 10 years across Ireland.

Leitrim has experienced a decline in services, as has much of the North West, with a contraction of services in general, particularly in rural areas.

During the debate, Leitrim TD Martin Kenny of Sinn Féin addressed local post office closures, noting that the reduction in services affects rural Ireland broadly and is not limited to post offices.

“Across my rural community, I have seen many post offices over the past decade close. It removes that central piece of contact from the rural community,” said Deputy Kenny. He highlighted that a major factor in closures is that for most people acting as postmaster or postmistress, the contracts in place are not viable when the position changes hands.

He cited the example of the Carrick-on-Shannon post office, which closed on St George’s Terrace on January 31, 2025, after operating there for over half a century due to the retirement of the postmistress. 

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The post office subsequently relocated to Glancy’s SuperValu in Cortober on February 4, 2025 - away from the town centre and across the county boundary in Roscommon.

“I saw it recently in Carrick-On-Shannon where quite a large post office had to close down because the postmistress said she was not doing it anymore. It simply was not viable under the contract that was in place, and the only place it could go was into a large shop, which had that alternative or added service to it,” commented Deputy Kenny.

“Stand-alone post offices seem to be a thing of the past. For many people in rural areas, that means the post office is going to be a thing of the past,” he added.

Deputy Kenny emphasised the need to maintain services that enhance and sustain rural communities, especially as population growth slows. 

He pointed to other examples of rural contraction, such as the amalgamation of football clubs and the closure of services like Garda stations.

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“This spiral downwards has to be stopped, and we have to try to get it to spiral upward again. The only way we can do that is for Government to take a keen interest in ensuring that services that are vital to people's lives are kept in place,” he said, urging investment in An Post and a revision of contracts to make them viable for prospective postmasters or postmistresses.