TD and postmaster Michael Healy-Rae has said that while the increase in the cost of a stamp brings it to “an awful price”, it was necessary to maintain a five day postal delivery service.
An Post announced on Wednesday that from February 1st, the price of a standard national stamp will increase by 5c to €1.40, the fourth price hike in three years.
Speaking on RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show, Mr Healy-Rae, the postmaster in Kilgarvan, Co Kerry, said he hated to see the price increase, but he believed that An Post would not do it unless it was necessary.
More people are using emails to send and pay bills, he said, and it was mostly older people who used the post. “We want to see that our post office is kept open and I would like to give a message to people today: if you are a person who has a local post office near you, I would always say remember, if you don’t use it, you will lose it.
“So people should get their pensions paid into their post offices. They should try to do so because post offices don’t get a wage, they get paid on a per transaction basis. Every time they sell a stamp or deal with a person who is getting a payment made to the post office, that’s what keeps them viable and keeps the door open. And that is so important.”
However, Mr Healy Rae was concerned that the increase in the cost of a stamp was going to hit vulnerable people who might not have access to computers and relied on the postal service. It was of “paramount importance” to maintain the five-day delivery service, he said. While he did not want to accept the increase, he understood the need for it and had been told that the only way there could be cheaper stamps was by reducing the daily service.
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