Some 500 post offices throughout the State have been closed in the two terms of office of the Fianna Fáil/PD government, the Labour Party has claimed.
But Labour communications spokesman Tommy Broughan said figures released to him by Minister for Communications Noel Dempsey were incomplete. He claimed post offices previously listed as closed in parliamentary questions, including Whitehall in Dublin 9, are missing from the list.
"Given that it is an incomplete list, however, it is still an astonishing record of the decimation of the postal network under Minister Dempsey and his predecessors, Ministers Ahern and O'Rourke.
"Dublin has been particularly badly hit with the closure of over 20 post office units including historic post offices at Donnycarney, Clontarf, Killiney, Naul, Upper Drumcondra, Walkinstown and St. Margaret's."
Mr Broughan said Cork, Mayo and Galway had also seen their post office network "decimated" since 1997. There have been 50 post offices closed in Cork, 20 closures in Galway, and 31 post offices shut down in Mayo, he added.
Mr Broughan said the total number of postal units had dropped from "well over 1,800 to around 1,300" and that there is still the threat of closure to a further 500.
"Minister Dempsey has once again refused to bring forward a national postal strategy and the near-destruction of the postal network will be one of his most damaging legacies."
He called for a moratorium on any further post office closures until "a new minister for communications has the opportunity to devise a national strategy".
In December, several Fine Gael TDs called on the Government to block the closure of rural post offices. They also moved a Private Member's motion seeking the computerisation and modernisation of the entire network of post offices and sub-post offices.
The organisation representing the owners of 1,300 local post offices said in October last year it was willing to accept substantial closures once its members get a "suitable exit package".
John Kane, secretary general of the Irish Postmasters' Union, told an Oireachtas committee yesterday that his organisation realised that the size of the network would have to be reduced.