Vol. 514 No. 1
140 Mr. Dennehy asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will make a statement on the growing public concern at recent delays on the delivery of mail, particularly cross channel mail; and if she will liase with management of An Post to ensure that the backlog is cleared as soon as is feasible. [3616/00]
I understand from An Post that there is no backlog of mail in the postal system at this time. An Post has indicated that, in the first two weeks of January 2000, the standard of mail deliveries in the Dublin postal districts was adversely affected by an unusually high level of sick absence among delivery staff, and by unofficial industrial action by delivery staff represented by the Communications Workers Union at certain Dublin delivery offices between 4 and 11 January. The company has stated that all Dublin deliveries were back to normal on 13 January last.
With regard to cross-channel mail, I understand from An Post that some despatches of second class mail from the UK in the first three weeks of January were found to include approximately 50,000 items in respect of which insufficient postage had been paid. These were mainly Christmas cards posted at the UK domestic first and second class rates as opposed to the appropriate UK to Ireland rate. In addition, 4,000 social security cheques posted in Newcastle-upon-Tyne as first class items were mis-sorted in the UK as second class items. All of these items had been posted in the UK in early to mid December 1999, but only arrived in Ireland during January 2000 because of a backlog in the UK. This backlog in the UK was finally cleared by the British Post Office on 21 January, and An Post has assured me that services have been fully back to normal since then.
