Mail delivery survey findings challenged
They have somehow come up with the statistic that only 70% of letters posted within Ireland are delivered next day.
As somebody who has extensively used An Post’s services I refute this spurious claim.
Almost all letters that I have posted have reached their destination next day - even if I posted them late in the day, even up to 6pm.
The same applies to my friends who are more than happy with our postal service especially when compared with the likes of Spain and Italy where, when you post a letter/postcard on the very first day of your two-week holiday, you are lucky if it has arrived before you get home.
Who are ComReg?
What is their agenda? Why don’t they challenge the real cause of An Post’s current difficulties - namely that it, unlike our other semi-states such as ESB and CIÉ - doesn’t receive a subvention from the Government to cover the social aspects of its services like rural post offices that will always remain loss-making, no matter what cutbacks are imposed?
If there was a proper government subvention, An Post could also pay our two outstanding pay increases due to us under the ‘Sustaining Progress’ pay agreement and now worth a total of 5% still owing to the staff.
These increases have been withheld because An Post is pleading inability to pay.
Giving staff their due would improve morale which has been severely dented over recent months because our wages have fallen behind everybody else’s.
Why aren’t ComReg looking at these issues?
Finally, it should be pointed out that during the period this survey by ComReg was undertaken there were serious industrial relations difficulties at the Dublin mail centre, and these adversely affected the percentage of next-day delivery of letters within Ireland.
Paul Kinsella
53 Lorcan Grove
Santry
Dublin 9
