Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I am frightened that I might intervene in matters which we, as an Oireachtas, have given An Post a statutory responsibility to fulfil. Risking that, I might well approach the chief executive. I, too, would be interested. It is a really good company that is trusted and well managed and deals with a large volume of transactions across the State. The underlying reality, however, is that the mail system is declining. Private letters are a thing of an 18th century novel. The core business mail, which was still maintaining a lot of the service, is also probably due to contract as people switch online. You would have thought, and I would be of the view, that publicity mail is one of the areas where you could run against that trend. I do not disagree with what the Deputy said at the start, that we as politicians have to be careful as we avail of the service. That gives us a real expertise and knowledge in the area. We can tell the merits and demerits of various distribution systems, unlike anyone else, because that is part of our business and An Post needs new business. I think a lot of it will come in digital technology services. The trusted characteristics of the company may be useful in a world where trust in digital companies is on the wane. As Deputy Stanton has said, An Post has been there since the stagecoach. That might give them a comparative competitive advantage.

In the meantime, there is still a demand and market for that publicity mail. If, as the Deputy says, the routes are designed in a way that does not give the necessary flexibility and targeted precision, I would like to find out why, although I would be nervous about interfering in operational matters. It would be good to hear, and I will try to follow up with the company and feed back to the Deputy any further information I get.

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