Post Office candidates will run in the next election after members voted in favour of the move.

Members of the Irish Postmasters' Union have agreed to a comprehensive political campaign at their annual conference in Kilkenny, that they say will protect the Post Office Network.

The candidates will run as Independents, but will be supported by the 1,100 post offices across the country.

Concern about the future of the Post Office Network has intensified recently, after a report by Grant Thornton found hundreds of offices nationwide would close by 2017, mainly as a result of the change in delivery of social protection payments to Electronic Funds Transfer.

Ned O'Hara is the General Secretary of the Postmasters' Union: