Welfare contract vital for post network

THE decision by the European Court to dismiss the European Commission’s legal action against awarding the social welfare contract to An Post is to be welcomed.

The court decision ends the uncertainty surrounding the social welfare contract.

It now means the way is cleared for the Government to make a decision on the future of the contract in the best interests of social welfare customers and the wider community.

The Irish Postmasters Union (IPU), which represents the country’s 1,300 postmasters, believes that awarding the social welfare contract to the post office is critical to the fulfilment of the commitment in the programme for government to maintain and support a functioning national post office network.

Simply awarding the contract to An Post isn’t sufficient, however.

The Government also needs to move now to encourage social welfare recipients to opt to use the post office for their payments rather than the commercial banks.

Using the banking option to pay social welfare customers saves the Department of Social and Family Affairs about 25% per transaction, but the irony is that the social welfare recipient has then to pay the bank approximately 30% each time he/she accesses a payment.

The cost to the social welfare recipient at the post office is zero while the cost of the service actually provided by the post office to the Department of Social and Family Affairs is approximately 50% per transaction. By using the banks to pay social welfare benefits, the department gets the customer to foot the transaction bill.

In addition, if customers were encouraged to opt for payments through the post office, they could pay a wide range of bills without incurring additional charges, unlike with the banks.

John Kane

General Secretary

Irish Postmasters Union

Pier 19

Ushers Island

Dublin 8