Ms Patricia Cronin:

The Minister effectively considered matters at a higher level than that.

He considered the scale of the volume decline last year - effectively there was a doubling of the decline - its impact and that of the price increase arising out of the Labour Court recommendation. In terms of dealings with An Post, that left it in an acute financial situation. The Minister is conscious that the universal service obligation is an obligation on the State, which it has assigned to An Post and, leaving that aside, it is a very important obligation. People value the five-day-a-week delivery service and the issue for us was that An Post absolutely would be able to continue to provide that service. In order to continue to provide that service, it needed the financial wherewithal to do that.

In addition, we asked NewERA to conduct an in-depth review of An Post. It worked closely with An Post and spent nearly a year doing that. This is the second time it has done a very in-depth review of An Post. It broadly concurred with the conclusion that An Post is facing a serious financial situation. NewERA is highly experienced at examining State bodies.

The Minister also asked An Post to get some independent verification and the company asked Indecon to examine its pricing work to ascertain whether the consultancy was satisfied that the price increases proposed would help An Post to be financially viable in order to continue to provide a universal service and, as its chief executive said, to give it a runway to have a fundamental review of the company. Those were the parameters. It is not our role to get into that kind of detail because we are also conscious that international agreements are covered and it is set out in legislation that they are international agreements. An Post is only one of many in terms of those agreements.