Like every other Member, I appreciate our post office network. We are sad to think that so many post offices have closed around us over the years. I remember the previous postmasters in Kilgarvan, Denis P. O'Sullivan and his brother, John O'Sullivan. Before them were Bridie and James Cronin. She used to send her brother out with the telegrams. My uncles told me a story. They met him one day going up the road with a telegram. He asked them if he had much further to go and they asked him where he was going. He told them to mind their own business and to tell him how far he had to go. That was how secretive he was supposed to remain about the telegram. That is a story of happier times. We lost Clonkeen post office, which was very close to me. We lost the post offices in Headford, Blackwater Bridge and different places. Invariably, they are the centre of each locality. If the post office is not there, a place loses its identity. We are in trouble now with so many shops closing in rural areas. In many rural villages, there is nothing left but the post office. We hope we will retain the post offices in Kilgarvan, Kenmare and Glenflesk. We appreciate the great work they do. The Government should advise people to deal with post offices for payments rather than letting them go to banks. We have done enough for the banks. Payments should always be directed to post offices to ensure business is kept in them. People should not be sent elsewhere to bigger towns because there are no longer banks in villages. As everyone else has said, it is up to the people to use their post offices because they will not have them if they do not. We lost another post office a couple of weeks ago in Cordal. A family gave great service to the area. The man who ran the post office is now a senior citizen. His father retired many years ago and he carried on the business. A tradition and a name has been lost in Cordal with the closure of the post office. We are sad about that because it was a great place for people to meet. Elderly people feel it is their job to collect a pension or whatever else. Likewise, the children's allowance and other benefits should be paid through post offices.

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