Loophole that cost taxpayers €3m

TAXPAYERS could have saved more than €3 million last year if politicians were allowed to avail of a special discount on postage stamps offered by An Post.

Almost €15 million was spent on stamps by candidates for Dáil and Seanad elections in 2007 to send out almost 26,000 items of campaign material to households.

Candidates are entitled to post this material free of charge and the cost is then recouped by An Post from the exchequer under legislation introduced in 1992.

However, the Comptroller and Auditor General (C&AG) yesterday outlined a loophole in this law, which means that the exchequer cannot avail of the bulk-posting discount offered by An Post to businesses or private individuals.

The C&AG report said this loophole cost the exchequer between €1.5m and €3.3m in 2007.

“The bulk discounts offered by An Post range from six to 11 cent off the prevailing postage rates depending on the posting options selected. Application of these discounts to the posting volumes arising in the case of the general and Seanad elections of 2007 would have yielded savings for the Exchequer of between €1.5 and €3.3m,” the report said.

“While it would appear that the notice available regarding the timing of elections and the streamlined presentation of related postal material would give rise to significant cost savings for An Post, the State, as a user of the postal services, was not in a position to avail of discounts comparable to those offered to other service users,” the report said.

The Department of Fiance tried twice to negotiate reductions in postal services for elections.

In September 2007, when the department was clearing the bill with An Post for the election, it requested a reduction, but was refused.