A total of 344 post offices have closed around the country in the past seven years, leading to increasing social isolation, particularly among vulnerable groups in rural areas, according to the Society of St Vincent de Paul.
Calling for "coherent government action" to replace key social and personal services lost as a result of the closures, the society revealed that 16 post offices have closed between January 2nd and January 9th this year alone.
A further post office is set to shut its doors in Julianstown, Co Meath, today.
The society added that nine counties had lost at least 30 per cent of their contractor-operated offices since the beginning of 2002, with the greatest declines recorded in Leitrim (down 41 per cent) and Cavan, Sligo and Westmeath (each down 40 per cent)
According to the national president of the charity, Maireád Bushnell, the economic justification offered by An Post for closing a post office failed to take into account the "vital part" they occupied in the social infrastructure of the local community.
"The service goes well beyond the provision of postal services and helps to sustain a number of key social supports and services for many vulnerable people," Ms Bushnell said. "Post offices act as key focal points for people and often function as the only shop in the area. Postmen and women themselves provide a social support to individual members of the public, mostly older people."
"The value of this human contact in the lives of many people far outweighs the cost measured on a balance sheet."
She called on the Government to introduce a range of measures to counteract the effects of post office closures. "We're saying clearly to An Post and to the Government that where the closure of a post office is deemed commercially justifiable, it is vital that alternatives are provided.
"Other State-owned companies provide important social but commercially unprofitable services; for example, Bus Éireann provides transport to lightly populated parts of rural Ireland and the ESB supplies electricity infrastructure to islands.
"These precedents demonstrate that there is no reason why An Post's mandate cannot be amended to support the post-office network in areas where it is under threat."
Among the measures which the society wishes to see introduced are a regular transport service to a town or village post office located within a reasonable distance and the provision of personal access to a telephone and alarms for all older people.
The St Vincent de Paul also wants to ensure that affected areas are serviced by an out-of-hours medical service, and that postmen and women are trained to spot signs of social isolation and need.
A spokesman for An Post acknowledged the level of closures of post offices but said no programme to close post offices was being operated by the company.
There are 1,281 post offices remaining.
An Post says that a ratio of approximately one post office for every 3,000 citizens in Ireland is significantly higher than other EU countries such as Spain and the UK. "The reality is that in many rural parts of Ireland, the post office is the 'last man standing', so in some respects it is simply catching up with modern Ireland, " the spokesman said.
Where a post office is due to close, An Post seeks to find an alternative provider, he added.
The St Vincent de Paul intervention received strong support from the Irish Postmasters Union (IPU) yesterday, which expressed "extreme concern about the impact of the closures on communities, particularly rural and isolated ones".
A spokesman for the Department of Communications, which oversees An Post, last night said the Government is committed to maintaining "a strong and viable post office network."