Mr. Alex Chisholm:

That target, which was set in 2004 after a public consultation, has been in place for a good long while. Going back, if I may, before dealing with the present, An Post made reasonable progress towards that target for a number of years. Initially, from a level of 72% it moved up into the mid-80s over a number of years, with constant encouragement and prompting from ComReg. Then, it seems to have plateaued at that level. The company continued to assure us that it was its top priority and of paramount importance and it put into its annual reports and other public statements that it was going to hit the target. It was originally going to hit the target of 94% in 2007, then in 2008 and then in 2009. Then we gave it a notification on compliance and it said it would hit the target in 2010 and then 2011. In fact, during that period since 2008, its performance in quality of service - next-day delivery - has not improved. It went from 83% to 84% to 85% and then back down to 84%. Currently it is between 83% and 84%.