TDs want “end to uncertainity” in sorting office saga

Dublin South-West TDs Ciarán Ahern, Sean Crowe and John Lahart have criticised a planned move of the Edmondstown sorting office to Lucan.

The Dublin South-West TDs (along with People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy, who was left off the official Dáil debate due to an oversight) have said that the planned move of the sorting office from Edmondstown to Lucan is “unreasonable.”

Labour TD Ahern said, “this sorting office has been a prized local asset for decades.”

“It is an issue as it is a public service in the area. People locally see this as a degradation of services in our area. In practical terms, it would be asking people from Rathfarnham, essentially, and that area to travel across the already congested M50 to pick up parcels in Lucan rather than being able to do it locally.”

Ahern said, “the staff and the local people are really concerned about it; we have heard rumours, but have not heard anything formally from An Post about this yet.”

Ahern said he was seeking a meeting with An Post on the matter

Fianna Fáil TD Lahart noted that the issue was serious enough that he, and three opposition TDs, were willing to put their differences aside to try to get a fair deal for their constituents.

Lahart noted, “the four non-officeholders in Dublin South West come together when there is an issue of serious concern to all of us, and this is one such issue of concern.”

He said the planned move has caused “significant concern across a wide area of south Dublin, including Rathfarnham, Knocklyon, Ballycullen, Ballyroan, Ballyboden, Butterfield and those areas.”

Lahart said, “the Edmondstown facility currently provides reliable, accessible and community-focused services. It allows residents to easily collect missed deliveries and engage with a local service that is clearly valued and has employed a lot of local people historically.”

“As was mentioned, the proposed location would require residents to travel across the M50 to Lucan simply to collect a parcel, and for many, this is a significant and unreasonable burden.”

The Fianna Fáil TD said, “we have been contacted by constituents with no access to private transport or who may have significant needs and are not able to use public transport. Postal workers are also concerned about significantly longer commutes for them.”

He questioned, “is the Minister of State aware of the plans? Has any impact assessment been carried out? What engagement has been taking place? Will he intervene to protect local services?”

Sinn Féin TD Crowe said Edmondstown wasn’t the only Southside sorting office at risk of being moved across the city.

“It (An Post) is also talking about closing one in Tallaght and relocating the one in Churchtown, which is in Dublin 14, to Edmondstown,” he told the Dáil.

“There is a demand in relation to the levels of parcels. It is at Christmas levels at the moment, and it is growing all the time. We accept that there needs to be efficiencies in relation to that, but the distance involved is considerable.”

Crowe explained that travelling from Rathfarnham to Lucan is “not straightforward, particularly given chronic traffic congestion across south and west Dublin.”

“Public transport options in Rathfarnham and Lucan are limited and indirect for many residents, particularly older people and those with disabilities or those without access to a car. Collecting missed deliveries would become extremely difficult,” he warned.

Crowe said that “many of the people who are impacted by this would have to go the M50 route with all the challenges in relation to that. Part of the challenge is that we have not got the information from An Post of exactly what it is going to do, and staff or local customers have not been informed either.

Minister of State at the Department of Communications, Charlie McConalogue, said that An Post were a statutory body, meaning that day-to-day operations and organisation were not within the government’s remit.

McConalogue said, “obviously, whenever there is change such as this, it is really important there is engagement with the staff and the unions, which An Post has informed me is ongoing.”

“It is really important that is the case but it is also appropriate in this case that it should meet with the Deputies, who have expressed concerns, to discuss the plan and where it is at and how everyone can be consulted and engaged with and that change is managed in a way that works for everyone,” he said.

The Fianna Fáil TD told the Dublin South-West TDs that An Post is considering moving the An Post delivery office – not the post office but the delivery office – from Edmondstown, Dublin 16, to a new Dublin west delivery hub later this year.

“It has been noted that it is in consultation with its union and staff and that the company will be working hard to ensure local customers are not disadvantaged. This work includes securing local post offices to enable customers to pick up missed mail. As noted, it is a matter for the company directly as opposed to the government.

“Neither I nor the Minister, Deputy O’Donovan, as the shareholders, are in a position to make these decisions; it is an operational matter for it,” he said.

He said that An Post were in the process of hiring 300 new postmen and women across Ireland in order to keep up with demand.

He said, “we are seeing a transformation in relation to postal services. Obviously, the number of letters and how people conduct their lives is changing. It is really important that An Post is in a position to be able to adapt and be at the forefront of that change, particularly being able to accommodate the demand in terms of parcels, online sales and business that is happening, and it has been.”

“That does mean, I know, that in many parts of the country – I have the same in my county – they are having to change their sorting offices and to consolidate them into delivery and sorting offices which are capable of meeting that increased demand and the increased demand that will be there in the future.”

He said that from the government’s standpoint, it was about making An Post’s services “strong and effective,” but that didn’t get to the crux of the Dublin South West TD’s issues – why is the sorting office being moved from Edmonstown to Lucan?

Ahern said he wanted to see “an end to the uncertainty,” but welcomed McConalogue’s organistaion of a meeting between the TDs and An Post management.

Lahart said, “we have lost Templeogue post office and we lost Rathfarnham post office; they were never replaced despite great efforts by local public representatives.”

“As for the last remaining local post office in this area, in Ballyroan, I do not want to comment on it because I do not own or run it, but just from going in and out and engaging, I just wonder about its capacity to store material. I acknowledge that An Post is growing in terms of deliveries, but this is local.”

He said, “it is a service issue, it is about local people and it is about workers now potentially having to engage in much longer commutes and, certainly, older people and people with disabilities having to engage in cruel commutes just to collect parcels.”

Crowe said, “at the end of the day, we need to know where the parcels will go, if they are not delivered to households. A lot of people living in apartments cannot get access to their parcels and so on. Where do they have to go? What is proposed in relation to the location in Lucan is unsuitable.”

Crowe noted, “there is also the issue of staff. Most of the staff live locally and are from the locality, whether it is Edmondstown, Tallaght or some of the other areas. Again, this will move people, create extra traffic and so on. What is being talked about is unsuitable.”

The issue was first raised by Green councillor Oisin O’Connor, who called the proposed move “unacceptable” in April.

The Glencullen-Sandyford councillor said, “the existing sorting office in Edmondstown is already inaccessible for many of the people it serves; moving it to Lucan, without giving people in Sandyford, Ballinteer and Rathfarnham an alternative local option would be completely unacceptable.”

The Green councillor said “An Post should not be sending people to Lucan to collect missed post or parcels” and that the recent threatened closures or movements of post offices on the Southside is part of a wider government push.

“There’s nothing Fine Gael and Fianna Gáil love more than a suit cutting public services,” O’Connor remarked.