Senator in court challenge to Post deal with Fianna Fail

Senator Joe Costello of the Labour Party has asked the High Court for an injunction restraining An Post from attaching any political slogan to postal packets sent by members of the public.

He is objecting to a contract between An Post and Fianna Fáil under which post is stamped with the words: “Fianna Fáil, the republican party – a lot done – more to do”, over the three-month period, March to May 2002.

After opening submissions on behalf of Senator Costello, who is a Labour Party Dáil candidate in Dublin, Mr Justice O’Sullivan adjourned the proceedings to Thursday morning to enable Fianna Fáil to become a notice party to the proceedings, if it wishes.

The judge said he would hear the entire proceedings on Thursday and hoped to give a judgment on the matter by Friday.

Senator Costello complains there was unauthorised interference with a letter he sent on March 30th last to a senior citizen, Mr Michael O’Brien, of Summerhill, Dublin.

While the letter was in the custody of An Post, it was impressed and marked with the Fianna Fáil slogan, he said.

By applying this slogan on envelopes without the agreement of those to whom the mail was sent, An Post was tampering with postal packets within the meaning of Section 84 of the 1983 Postal and Telecommunications Services Act and was committing a criminal offence, he argued.

Senator Costello said it was important that such an abuse be stopped at the earliest opportunity. As a Dáil candidate he anticipated that the presence of a Fianna Fáil stamp on letters sent by him as a Labour Party candidate would diminish the effectiveness of such communications.

In another affidavit, Mr Thomas Dunne, the key account manager in the letter post division of An Post, said the assertion that the post service was guilty of “tampering” with postal packets was scandalous.

The post mark advertising service had been in operation since 1983, and health boards had used it in their “give blood ” campaign, while foot-and-mouth disease warnings had been carried on behalf of the Department of Agriculture. Budget Travel and Axa insurance had also used the service which was available to all, including political parties. This included the Labour Party.

Revenue from the service was used to offset costs and keep the price of postage as low as possible. His organisation had orders for post mark advertising into March of next year. The service had operated from before 1983 without complaint from the public.