An Post has indicated that further price rises for standard domestic mail could be on the way, although commercial customers are likely to benefit from greater discounts.
The company said yesterday it needed to enhance revenue and "re-balancing" prices was crucial to this. The company plans to lay off 1,450 staff as it seeks to grapple with an operating loss of €47 million for this year.
Cost savings will be sought in a range of areas. Bonuses for senior management have been postponed and will not be paid again until targets are met.
While cost savings will be pursued throughout An Post, it emphasised that extra revenue was also needed. One way to do this might be "tariff rebalancing", according to chief executive Mr Donal Curtin.
It is understood corporate customers, which put large volumes of mail through the postal system, could get larger discounts, while charges for smaller items might increase. However, a company spokesman said tariff re-balancing would not be done "in one fell swoop".
The company declined to speculate on how large the increase might be. Telecoms and postal regulator ComReg recently sanctioned a price rise from 41 to 48 cents. The company said this increase was the first in 12 years and charges in the Republic were well below those of other European economies.
The chairwoman of An Post, Ms Margaret McGinley, who was appointed by the Government in February, also admitted An Post's financial reporting was inadequate over recent months and the board failed to appreciate the extent of the losses as a result.
She told a media briefing the financial reporting was "clearly inadequate" and changes were being introduced. However, she said the board had done its best and could only take action based on information passed to it.
A company spokesman said afterwards that the board could only supply the information it had, however defective, to the Department of Communications.
Ms McGinley said the information generated within An Post would be of a higher quality in future, with regular updates on key performance indicators given to the board.
The company in its presentation also raised the issue of the universal service obligation (USO). This requires An Post to provide certain minimum services throughout the State, including unprofitable activities such as making deliveries in isolated rural areas.
Mr Curtin said this was not an immediate concern and the company had no intention of deserting rural Ireland. But he said the USO might need to be looked at by politicians in the future.
Several senior An Post executives have pointed out that the ESB is paid a levy for providing certain public service obligations such as operating turf power stations, but An Post is not. It is likely the company will raise this issue in the future, said sources.
Negotiations on the 1,450 redundancies will have to be concluded by January 2004, said Mr Curtin.
