Public comment on stamp costs sought

An Post’s proposals for stamp price increases have been published and opened to public comment by the Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg).

The application made by An Post to ComReg includes an increase in stamp prices from 41c to 48c. It is understood that this price increase, coupled with other proposed price rises, will result in an increase of 5 per cent of An Post’s turnover.

The ComReg consultation paper outlines all of An Post’s proposals and it is now seeking public comment. “Members of the public can forward their views and we will analyse what people have submitted,” said a ComReg spokesman.

In her forward to the paper, ComReg Chairperson Ms Etain Doyle, said the key to the long term survival and competitiveness of An Post was to “offer prices that reflect the cost of efficiently providing the service”.

She said that unavoidable costs could be managed by “growing the volume of mail or other services” and that it was important “the customer should not have to continue to incur price increases to fund the inefficiencies of An Post”.

An An Post spokesman welcomed the decision to publish the consultation paper. “We are operating on 1991 prices, the cost of living has gone up by 40 per cent and labour costs have gone up by 42 per cent since then”, he said. “Twenty million euro will be raised if we get the increases which will help restore the business to profitability. It will still be the second cheapest postal tariff in Europe.”

Though An Post has the monopoly on post weighing up to 100g, it must obtain ComReg’s approval in advance for stamp price increases for these letters, which account for 94 per cent of its business.

The paper may be viewed at www.comreg.ie and the closing date for responses is July 14th.