Survey reveals four-day wait for An Post to deliver

Ireland has one of the slowest postal services in Europe, with standard letters taking up to four days toarrive, Irish Examinerresearch reveals.

Over two months the Irish Examiner posted more than 100 letters from 10 city and rural locations. Only 73 pct came on time, indicating An Post is likely to break its promise of achieving a next-day delivery rate of 80 pct by the end of the year.

Since 2003, An Post’s next-day delivery rates have averaged about 72 pct of all mail, in breach of the 94 pct target set by the official postal watchdog ComReg.

Consumers’ Association of Ireland chief executive Dermott Jewell called for an overhaul of An Post.

“We are looking at a postal system in chaos and with Christmas on the way it’s An Post’s busiest time of year. This problem has got to be addressed by ComReg, who should either guarantee a service or a system of refunds,” he said.

In the Irish Examiner survey, a batch of 10 letters posted in Dublin all arrived the next day but another batch posted a month later took up to four days.

Letters posted from Co Offaly to Cork arrived the next day in one part of the city but took two days toarrive to other parts. Letters addressed in Irish took up to four days to reach Co Tipperary, yet one sent to England arrived sooner.

Yesterday An Post said performance figures for April to June showed next- day delivery rates had risen to 78 pct from 73 pct during the same months in 2006.

Head of communications Anna McHugh said: “We are fully committed to reaching our interim target of 80 pct next-day delivery this year and to achieving the target of 94 pct within three years.”