Victory for the local community over sudden closure of Post Office

The service,which operated out of the attached pictured premises in Rialto Village was suddenly ceased without notice to the community on 24 November 2016.

The service was removed to Dolphins Barn Street which caused undue hardship for struggling parents and older service users.

The community responded immediately and developed a very effective and visible local campaign which was assisted and supported by our Local Area Representative Damien Farrell,PBP Cllr Tina McVeigh,Ind TD Joan Collins and Cllr Pat Dunne.

Members of the campaign from the community gathered hundreds of petitions throughout December while Leinster House Elected Representatives Joan Collins and Brid Smith engaged with An Post and the Dolphins Barn Street PostMaster.

Finally today word was received that the current service provider would end the arrangement with An Post and the Rialto service will be put out for tendering again.

Speaking after hearing the news from Joan Collins TD this afternoon Damien Farrell said,

“this is a very positive move and goes to prove in my opinion that the whole business of the service being moved was underhanded because it was sinister. Somebody and probably more than one of the variables in this equation has something to hide and the very immediate,effective and public campaign forced the risk of some scrutiny. For this I applaud the work of the community and in particular the ad hoc organising committee and the elected representatives that weighed in with the community response. This is a great example of how people power coupled with effective political representation can bring about beneficial results”

Farrell went on to say “we now must continue the local campaign to have the postal service fully returned to the Village area and we must make this a demand to An Post to be a tenet of any tendering process”

The campaign will meet again in the F2 Center next Tuesday 24 January at 7.30pm to advance the campaign.