Opposition parties have criticised plans to end door-to-door postal delivery services in the State.
An Post is seeking to provide outdoor letter boxes in a move that could save the company €20 million a year.
The letter boxes will be placed at the end of people's driveways as close to a public road as possible to speed up the delivery of post in urban and rural areas, according to tender documents seen by The Irish Times.
An Post, which faces a financial crisis, has issued a tender for 500,000 letter boxes with locks and plans to begin deploying them by June.
But Labour spokesman on Community, Rural and Gaeltacht Affairs Mr Brian O'Shea said the Government should provide resources to maintain traditional delivery methods.
"If this proposal is accepted by the regulator and the Government, it will create huge difficulties for many people in rural Ireland in particular. For example, the elderly, the disabled or the housebound in isolated areas may have to travel to a post box at the end of their road to collect their post".
Fine Gael said it will not support the plan and has called on the Minister for Communications to state whether he supports it or not.
The final decision on the plan will be taken by the recently established Commission for Communication Regulation.
