Madam, - Dermot Ahern has been very vocal in recent days about the current financial position of An Post.
An Post has a social obligation imposed upon it from political sources of providing unprofitable postal and financial services for people in rural areas which it meets more than adequately and which it has to finance from its own resources.
When there is talk of certain rural post offices being closed (due to lack of business or otherwise) or of roadside letter-boxes being put in place, it is Minister Ahern and his colleagues - i.e. the local smart-ass TDs, trying to make a name for themselves - who are most vocal in their opposition to such measures.
However, when An Post seeks funding from central Government to continue providing the above mentioned - loss-making social services - which after all are Political Demands - they have nothing to say except to say No.
A bit hypocritical don't you think?
Any other commercial organisation, as we have seen with the banks, would have ignored political opinion and would have withdrawn those services a long time ago.
Those same politicians should put their money where their mouths are. If they want social services to be maintained, they should be willing to pay for them instead of trying to score political points off An Post and its employees. - Yours, etc.,
JAMES FURLONG, Finglas, Dublin 11.