An Post asked to clarify plan by Oireachtas body

Senior An Post officials are to be called before an Oireachtas committee to explain plans to end the home delivery of mail in an attempt to cut costs.

The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Mr Noel O'Flynn TD, said yesterday he would ask An Post management to come before the committee. He said he would be seeking assurances from An Post that firm provisions would be put in place to cater for those who could not collect their post from outside their homes, such as the disabled and elderly.

Opposition parties and interest groups yesterday criticised the proposal, saying an end to the traditional door-to-door service would be a blow to rural life in the State.

The disabled and elderly may be hit hardest if the changes were not handled properly, they said.

An Post has already indicated it is open to putting special provisions in place but Mr O'Flynn said a detailed plan needed to be set out before any changes to the current system were made. "The committee is also concerned about the security of the proposed outdoor letter boxes," he said.

Although he was in favour of An Post taking any action it could to improve its financial position, "changes must be approached with caution", but he said the delivery of mail to homes "up an avenue a mile long needs to be looked at".

Under the An Post plan, mail would be delivered to secure outdoor letter boxes rather than through the hall door. It has already issued a tender for 500,000 letter boxes.

The company believes the new system could save it €20 million a year and €15 million in additional savings. An Post is facing a financial crisis at present.

The new strategy would reduce the number of postmen and vehicles required to deliver post throughout the State. It would also reduce insurance costs and wear and tear on its vehicles.

Both Fine Gael and Labour have expressed their reservations.

Fine Gael's communications spokesman, Mr Simon Coveney , said the postman's role in rural communities was one of support and "in some incidences helps to prevent isolation".

The party's spokesman for community and rural affairs, Mr Fergus O'Dowd, called for the abandonment of the plan.

"The postman is often the first person to notice if someone is very ill and is a significant point of contact with other family members and the medial profession," he said. Labour's spokesman on community rural and Gaeltacht affairs, Mr Brian O'Shea, said the move by An Post would not have been necessary if the Government had invested more in the company.

He echoed the fears that many disabled and elderly people would be incapable of travelling to a mail box to collect their post.

The Communications Workers Union, which represents 9,000 postal workers around the State, said while it was worried about the plan, it was not surprised.

The union's national officer, Mr Stephen Fitzpatrick, said many of the union's members feared that hundreds of jobs would be lost.

"This is really all part of a wider issue, that being the deregulation of the postal service," he said. "We will know a lot more about the impact of the plan when a feasibility study is completed in March."

He added there now needed to be a wider debate as to what kind of postal service An Post wanted to provide in the long term. The manner in which the company sought to shed jobs, be it on a forced or voluntary basis, would be something the CWU would be keeping a close eye on, he said.

An Age Action Ireland spokesman said any change in current postal services should only go ahead if special provision were made for the elderly. "A postman calling to a house often acts as a kind of guardian angel for older people," he said.

"When you think about it, the bread man doesn't call to houses any more, the milk man often comes just a few days a week and meals on wheels isn't every day either. So we would be anxious to see An Post sticking with its promise to maintain services for older people."

The Disability Federation of Ireland welcomed comments by An Post that it would examine ways of catering for the disabled.

However, it said An Post needed to state clearly how people with disabilities would be catered for under the new scheme.

"We would be concerned that vulnerable groups in our society, and that includes the disabled, would not be disadvantaged in an effort to balance the books."