Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)

I thank the Minister for his reply. I appreciate that the legislation flows from an EU directive but the difficulty with the universal service obligation is the context now is radically different from when the legislation was first proposed. An Post does an excellent job and it has proved to be efficient by making progress on delivery times and so on. The Minister referred to a consultation period in 2008. The volume of post declined by 10% in 2009 and it looks like it has fallen by 16% over the past 18 months. Volumes have plummeted as a result of the recession and technological advances and this will affect the capacity of An Post to deliver a universal service into the future. Will the Minister take on board that the recession is putting pressure on postal services? We all want a universal service. Does he consider that the sharing mechanism is inadequate? We have witnessed how the risk equalisation mechanism introduced for health insurance failed when it was challenged in the courts but, in regard to postal services, the position could be exacerbated by not having competitors in the market to pay for this sharing mechanism. The solution could be exacerbated for postal services by not having competitors in the market to pay for it.

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