asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if he will reconsider his decision in relation to the closing of Castlecarey Post Office, County Donegal in view of the great inconvenience experienced now by old age pensioners, disabled persons and the community in general who used the post office.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - County Donegal Post Office.
41.
In view of the small amount of business transacted I do not find it possible to re-open the sub-post office in question. It is not, of course, necessary for old age pensioners to collect their pensions personally at a post office.
It has come to my notice, since tabling this question, that another post office has been closed and was actually closed before this one. Is it the practice of the Department to close small offices like this throughout the country?
They do not actually close offices except on the occurrence of vacancies and then only where the retention of the office is clearly uneconomic. In this case, the subpostmistress died last March and none of the immediate relatives was interested in running the office, and in fact it was not possible to get anybody to run it and it was automatically closed without a protest from the area. That was in last March.
In view of the fact that the telephone is still installed in the office, would the Minister consider allowing it to remain there to serve the people in the area?
Unfortunately, the use made of the telephone is very slight, and while we would not like to take away that facility if its retention were justified, in this case the total annual revenue is a little over £12 and we would hardly be justified in leaving it there.
I accept what the Minister says, but apparently that seems to be the stock reply from his Department. Would he not consider that economics should be a secondary consideration——
That is a separate matter altogether.