A chara, –I couldn't agree more with JJ Murphy (Letters, January 30th) with regard to An Post. But I would go further. The pleasure in receiving cards or hand-written letters is beyond question. But posting a letter in Ireland is such a production. First you have to buy a stamp, and with the crazily limited number of sellers, that usually means the post office, and a queue. Stamps seem to be much easier to purchase in other countries.
Could there not be a way of purchasing a code online that could be written on an envelope, read electronically by the checking system and rejected if invalid? Users of this system could be registered online, and all such letters would have to have a return address on the back to further validate use of this method. Invalid letters would be returned to sender.
Then there is the postbox issue. Could postmen not collect letters from houses and businesses, or at least could there be a postbox at the entrance to every housing estate, which would be emptied every day by the visiting postman?
Finally, if An Post really wishes to be an efficient service provider, why can it not move its final post times back to a reasonable business finishing time. Around here the final times vary between 4.40pm and 5.30pm, potentially meaning that every business that has post has to have one employee leaving early to “catch the post”, instead of one business changing slightly their timing.
If An Post is seriously interested in providing a service to users, surely it should consider some innovative improvements. Or is it just too late?
Maybe I’ll just send a text. – Is mise,
GER MULVEY,
Kilkenny.
Sir, – I read with a degree of incredulity JJ Murphy’s suggestion for our postboxes. That said, the reference to them being “relics of a bygone age” has a certain truth, as without exception they are in atrocious condition: dirty, chipped and often graffitied. All of this in marked contrast to our stamps, which are quite superb. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL HILL,
Greystones, Co Wicklow.
Sir – JJ Murphy might be interested to know that there has been a stamp vending machine adjacent to the postbox at the Ballsbridge end of the Shelbourne Road in Dublin for as long as I can remember. – Yours, etc,
RICHARD BANNISTER,
Ballsbridge,
Dublin 4.