Stamp price rise to keep An Post out of 'choppy waters'
INCREASES in the price of stamps and postal services are essential if An Post is to overcome the “choppy waters” it faces in making the company competitive, according to Communications Minister Dermot Ahern.
Mr Ahern was speaking at the opening of a new 35m automated mail-sorting centre atLittle Island, Cork, which will serve the counties of Clare, Cork, Limerick, Kerry andWaterford.
“Obviously the Government wish to keep costs down as much as possible but when you see investment in a structure such as this, you realise a price must be paid. Increases inpostal services haven’t been significant in recent years because An Post have had anincreased turnover due to the economic situation. But we’re going into choppier watersnow so the future will be difficult for companies like An Post,” he said. Up to 450,000 items of mail will be processed daily at the facility, one of four hubs around the countrydesigned to prepare An Post to meet competition arising from the increasing liberalisationof the postal market. The cost of the new development completes the company’s 100m investment in an integrated national mail sorting system. Meanwhile, staff who run afull-time post office should be paid a basic wage of 25,000 a year for labour alone, according to the Irish Postmasters Union. The union which represents the operators of 1,700 sub-post offices around the country, has entered a fresh round of negotiations with An Post to get “a proper remuneration package” for its members.
IPU general secretary John Kane told the Irish Independent that they had put a value onrunning a full-time sub-post office five and a half days a week at 40,000 a year. And theunion believes when running costs are taken out of this it would leave 25,000 for thepost office operator.
The union has also claimed that the country’s cash-strapped post offices would be more financially viable if the people “clamouring to keep them open” would support their local post office by doing more of their business there.
Louise Geaney and Kathy Donaghy
Copyright 2003 Irish Independent. Source: Financial Times Information Limited – Europe Intelligence Wire.
