Sir, - I note, with some misgivings, that our Post Offices are to be computerised shortly to allow a whole range of services to be transacted over the counter - provided, of course, that stage is ever reached.
Here in Longford the Post Office boasts five counter positions labelled Gach Seirbhis; but rarely are there more than two Gachs open for business with the result that hundreds of man (and woman) hours are lost every week as the captive clientele, shuffling and cursing in a tortuous queue, inch around a central stand which mocks them with a display of cards bidding them: "Get well soon."
My fear is that as An Post bounds eagerly into what it obviously sees as a golden future it will completely outdistance its plain, ordinary, uncomputerised customers who will be frozen, like so many Lot's wives, in a queue outside the door with never a Gach in sight. - Yours, etc.,
Greenview,
Longford.