Rathmines post office faces uncertain future

Local elected representatives have expressed frustration with An Post for failing to provide clarity about the future of the post office in Rathmines.

At Monday’s meeting of the South-East Area Committee, various councillors voiced their annoyance about being no closer to finding out if their attempts to save the post office have succeeded after months of radio silence on An Post’s part.

The issue was raised by Labour councillor Fiona Connelly, who first the issue in March.

“I want to try to protect Rathmines from losing another iconic building,” she said.

She encouraged Dublin City Council to rezone the building as a public asset.

“This isn’t a piecemeal building; it’s an iconic building in Rathmines and it has really stood the test of time. It is really disappointing to think that it wouldn’t be rezoned so we could protect it as a public place.”

She expressed further frustration that a letter that was sent to Ministers Eamon Ryan and James Lawless has gone unanswered.

“I think that we, in Dublin City Council, need to do everything we can to maintain the public post office in public ownership because Rathmines is short of public spaces; it would be a huge loss to the area if Dublin City Council couldn’t do everything in its power to maintain it as a public space.”

She said that the council rezoning it would prevent the post office from being turned into a chain of a coffee shop, pub, or nail bar.

“We really owe it to the residents and the people who pass through Rathmines to preserve it as a public space.”

Connelly’s Labour colleague Dermot Lacey said “it begs the question; what on earth is the point of being a minister if it’s not to protect the public interest?”

He understood An Post’s reasoning on the subject from a commercial standpoint, but he said that pressure should be put on the relevant ministers to resolve the issue.

“There is no community centre in Rathmines and there is no local heritage centre. If you sit down for five minutes you can think of 20 uses for it as a public asset.”

Lacey said he would personally vote to rezone the building for public use if it came down to a vote, but owing to the weakness of local government, the decision would ultimately be the decision of the council’s chief executive.

Labour’s South Dublin reps held a public meeting in March where local residents expressed disappointment at the prospect of the post office being closed.

Speaking at the time, Connelly said “we heard from dozens of local people who passionately explained what this vital public service means to them.”

“Whether it is with people collecting parcels, paying bills, or collecting their pension, the post office is always busy. Queues out the door are a regular sight. An Post should not be allowed to franchise out the service and sell it off.”

Green councillor Hazel Chu “the first step is to maintain it as a post office.”

She noted that there have been “various conversations and various meetings” on the topic, and suggested a cohesive, cross-party approach to tackling the issue.

Chu further suggested holding an informal meeting between the various parties as a means of escalating the situation further.

Social Democrats councillor Eoin Hayes said, “it seems the Ministers in question have not replied, and I have written to An Post several times to get an update on what’s happening and haven’t heard anything back.”

He suggested that the South-East Area Committee alone could not solve the issue, and that a special meeting of Dublin City Council itself was required to force progress.

“There needs to be some kind of escalation here, because there hasn’t been much progress. It seems that everybody is ignoring us.”

Prior to his election in June, Hayes said of the proposed closure “if Green Party politics means loss of community spaces, I think it’s going in the wrong direction.”

“This is about the decline in community facilities and public spaces in one of the most vibrant parts of our city. As I’ve gone door-to-door speaking with residents in the area, there’s a universal concern that this is the latest in a long line of loss of prized community facilities in the local area.”

The Kimmage-Rathmines councillor invited Lord Mayor James Geoghegan to consider his options on the matter.

A petition started by local resident Peter Dooley back in February has attained over 2,600 signatures, with the petition calling for the planned sale to be reversed.

“Many people, particularly our elderly in the community who regularly use our vital, not for profit, public resource are understandably very distressed by the proposed plans which will be an unimaginable loss to our community,” the petition text reads.

In June, it was reported that An Post saw its revenue grow by 4% for the 2023 financial year, reporting, with revenue growing from €888.1m in 2022 to €922.9m in 2023.

The annual general meeting of An Post heard that in the first half of 2024, parcel growth reached 18% which parcels for Irish companies now on a par with Amazon.

In addition, An Post announced it had repaid a €30m government loan with its overall debt reducing from €82m to €39m.

The proposed closures are part of An Post attempting to secure long-term financial sustainability, but with An Post in its best financial position in a generation many are questioning the logic of closing local post offices during a period of healthy financial growth for the company.

In July, People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy staged a protest against the potential closure of the post office in Tallaght, saying “so far, An Post has ignored this campaign and similar campaigns to save post offices in Rathmines and Phibsborough.”

“The government has simply shrugged its shoulders and suggested it has nothing to do with them. That’s not good enough. The government must act to instruct An Post to stop this disastrous privatisation plan,” he said.