The EU says it cannot intervene to stop Ireland from closing rural post offices.

Authorities in Brussels say it is entirely up to individual countries to decide how to run their postal systems, as long as they run for 5 days a week.

The government denies it's planning to close rural post offices and says it's committed to keeping the services in the community.

But Postmasters and local campaigners still fear that rural offices could be shut if An Post goes ahead with plans to put electronic 'post and pay' kiosks in convenience stores and shopping centres.

Earlier this year, a report commissioned by the Irish Postmasters Union from Grant Thornton previously found that some 557 post offices are at risk of closure if the government continues to move to electronic payments.

The report found that by 2017 there would be a decline of 48% in the post office network.

It also found that where direct electronic payments are introduced and 75% of payments are done without the involvement of the network, 444 Post Offices would be lost by 2017.