An Post to seek new deal
John Hynes, the chief executive of An Post, has begun talks to renegotiate the firm’s postal agreement with international carriers in line with demands from Etain Doyle, the postal regulator.
Under the current agreement, which An Post has still not signed, other postal services pay 73% of the price of a standard 41c stamp in Ireland to have international mail delivered. An Post pays 73% of the price of the stamp in other countries to have Irish mail delivered there.
An Post said it lost €40m on international deliveries last year. In recent months, ComReg, the postal regulator, ordered the company to renegotiate the agreement by the beginning of July.
“It is quite clear that it is costing An Post money to deliver international inbound mail, which means that An Post is subsidising other European operators and their customers. This situation cannot be allowed to continue,” it said.
The deal, which was signed earlier this year by the other 17 European postal operators who are members of the so-called Reims II agreement, also imposed a price freeze on both the percentage and the basic stamp price until 2005.
At a meeting in Amsterdam last Thursday, Hynes told fellow Reims members that An Post had to renegotiate the concord which was meant to be binding until 2005. He said Ireland needed to do this because of the huge losses being sustained by An Post in this area.
