asked the Minister for Posts and Telegraphs if there are any proposals to equalise postal tariffs within the EEC.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Post Office Tariff Equalisation.
64.
There are no current proposals to equalise tariffs as such and there is no requirement in Community legislation in regard to postage rates. However, the six original members of the EEC have been exchanging letters in the minimum weight range and postcards at their respective internal postage rates for some time. The President of the EEC Commission recently wrote to the member states of the enlarged EEC expressing the wish that they might find it possible to adopt this practice of the Six in their postal relations with one another. The matter will be considered in consultation with the other member states but, in view of the financial implications, an early decision is unlikely. I should point out that mail to European countries is already afforded a specially improved service in that, while the standard foreign surface postage rates apply, it is despatched by air as the normal means of conveyance.
Would the Minister not agree that the recent increases in postal rates will adversely affect many firms in this country dealing with their counterparts in the EEC, such as mail order companies and others that require large circulation of their potential customers in order to sell their goods?
The need to raise postal rates was regretted by everybody, by the Government and the Minister concerned but, unfortunately, we were faced with a current deficit of £7 million a year and we had to meet that either out of increased rates or from some other form of taxation and criticism would come whichever way the money was raised.