Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)
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In recent weeks I have received reports from throughout the country of people who have been experiencing the non-delivery of mail for days and sometimes weeks on end. This lack of a proper postal service has been particularly bad in my constituency of Dublin North-East and in neighbouring constituencies in the estates of the Donahies and Clare Hall in particular. I have also received similar reports from throughout the country, including from Clare and Limerick. In one instance in my area, some residents were left without a postal delivery for more than a week and when they queried this, they were told to go down to the local sorting office and collect the post themselves. Another person was awaiting a P60 which was subsequently mislaid and this individual was also told to go to the local sorting office and retrieve the document.

On contacting An Post senior management about this unsatisfactory situation, I was told the reason for such lapses in mail delivery is that postal workers who are legitimately absent from work due to illness or annual holidays are not being replaced while out of work and in those instances post was simply not being delivered. I was also told that the long-standing embargo on the recruitment of temporary staff, which An Post has implemented over recent years, is continuing.

This is an astonishing and unacceptable state of affairs. An Post is mandated with a universal postal service obligation that guarantees every home and premises in the State with at least one delivery every weekday. That its senior management has placed a moratorium on temporary and holiday staff is insufficient reason for not fulfilling the universal postal obligation.

I raised this issue last week at a meeting of the Joint Committee on Communications, Marine and Natural Resources. It is a practice that An Post management cannot be allowed to continue. The universal postal service obligation is a cherished right of every citizen and must be discharged by the company. It is true that there have been difficult times in An Post, especially in 2002 and 2003. However, its annual report last year reported a profit of more than €7 million. The sale of major UK subsidiaries has realised something in the region of €85 million and there is also the projected sale of the SDS premises on the Naas Road. I understand that SDS is closing tomorrow, which is extremely regrettable and, I believe, unnecessary.

Much of the turnaround of An Post's fortunes has been achieved by the sacrifices of its workforce which has not had a pay rise for the last two and a half years, unlike the Members and staff of the Oireachtas who received the increases due under Sustaining Progress. I am informed that a 5% increase is due this week, backdated from the beginning of this year, but this does not go anywhere towards relieving the real suffering of An Post workers. The most disgraceful aspect of all is the treatment of An Post pensioners. It is a continuing disgrace that the 8,000 former workers and their families who have given decades of service to the country have not received any increases over the past two and a half years. Many of them, under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act 1983, are former civil servants. The Government is in an illegal position in not ensuring they receive it.

It is a continuing disgrace that many postmasters throughout the country do not have a minimum wage nor do they receive support to computerise the 400 offices that need to be updated urgently. There is a range of issues which the Minister, Deputy Noel Dempsey, must address with An Post management to try to get the national postal service back to the standard we knew and loved for many years and to try to bring about a positive workforce. Many of the ideas that need to be implemented are included in the excellent document, An Post: A New Vision, recently published by An Post's group of unions.

There is need for a new direction for the company. It should be undertaken in partnership with staff and management and led by the Minister. It should not be one where all the sacrifices are made by the postal workers, past and present, and more recently by householders and businesses that do not have their universal postal service. The Minister should give a lead on this, urgently. It is a matter I have raised many times in the House this session. He should give a lead to ensure we return to the type of postal services we always enjoyed, with a happy workforce and group of pensioners and with strong support for the local post office network.

Conor Lenihan (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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I am replying on behalf of the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Deputy Dempsey. I wish to be helpful by outlining the state of the postal sector at this time. The sector has changed significantly in recent years as the European postal market has been liberalised and postal operators have moved from national to international markets. The postal market in Ireland and, primarily, An Post faces challenges such as increased competition which arises from the liberalisation of the market as well as falling mail volumes and competition from electronic substitution. As it operates in a more competitive market, An Post will need to offer high-quality postal products and services to consumers who, increasingly, will be able to choose from a range of postal providers. We can expect such a postal market in future.

As the full liberalisation of the sector by 2009 is a real possibility, An Post must prepare to ensure that it can continue to be a strong player in the Irish postal market. Already the parcels sector in Ireland is fully liberalised in line with the EU postal directive and this has led to major international players operating in the Irish market. An Post now holds only 25% of the parcels market in this country.

The implementation of full liberalisation by 2009 will, if achieved, open up the letter post area to full competition. The Commission is undertaking further studies on the impact of competition on the universal service requirement which is enshrined in EU and Irish law. The requirement means that all addresses, both business and private, are entitled to deliveries at uniform tariffs with a guaranteed frequency. No decision has been taken yet at EU level on the future nature of the universal service obligation if the market is fully liberalised in 2009.

An Post is the designated universal service provider in Ireland and therefore the universal service obligation is a statutory requirement of the company. Furthermore, the European Communities (Postal Services) Regulations 2002 set out the area of the postal market solely reserved for An Post to allow the company to fulfil its universal service obligations. These exclusive rights for the delivery of certain services are deemed necessary to ensure the maintenance of the universal service.

There is agreement that change is required if the postal services of An Post are to adapt to the modern business environment and to continue to offer a top class countrywide delivery service to the customer into the future. To progress the change agenda, an exhaustive process of negotiations between An Post management and trade unions, with the assistance of the State's industrial relations machinery, has been ongoing for some time. An Post unions and management have been involved in intensive negotiations under the auspices of the Labour Relations Commission, LRC, in a bid to agree a recovery plan that will put the company on a sound footing.

The LRC appointed assessors to draw up a report on whether the company was right to invoke the inability to pay clause of the Sustaining Progress agreement. The assessors' report, presented to the LRC and An Post on 2 June this year, concludes that An Post is in a position to pay a 5% payment under Sustaining Progress. It is my understanding, however, that the assessors' report finds that An Post cannot afford any further elements of Sustaining Progress or the mid-term review of the national wage agreement other than in the context of securing finalisation on rationalisation and restructuring requirements.

I understand that An Post intends to pay the recommended 5% increase, back-dated to 1 January 2005, to its employees by the end of this month. However, An Post unions are in disagreement with the findings of the report and the matter will be referred to the Labour Court.

A real solution to the outstanding difficulties in An Post is for all stakeholders to agree on and implement a viable recovery plan which will enable An Post to deliver quality services to our citizens, while at the same time providing sustainable well-paid employment for its staff. I thank the Deputy for raising this matter.