Dáil Éireann debate -
Thursday, 12 Mar 1981

Vol. 327 No. 9

Adjournment Debate. - Dublin Postal Service.

Mr. Mitchell

I thank you for giving me the opportunity to raise this very important matter. It seems to be a feature of Dáil life nowadays to have to seek Adjournment Debates on inefficiencies in many Government Departments. We have had Social Welfare during the past few weeks and it is still going on. We have had to seek additional information in regard to PAYE, birth certificates and so on.

Recently I asked the Minister for the Public Service about the number of civil servants and I was told there are 30,000 more than there were ten years ago. Yet it seems that every service in direct contact with and supposed to be of service to the public is much worse than it ever has been. This applies particularly to the Dublin city and county postal service.

It has been the experience of all my colleagues throughout the city and county — Deputy Quinn endorsed that earlier, and I am sure that if the Minister consults his Deputies in the two areas they will tell him the same thing — that frequently it takes five days to have a letter delivered, and sometimes longer. The usual delivery time is three days.

I want to know what has happened. When I was a young fellow in Dublin we were all poor. In pre-computer days we could post a letter before 11 a.m. and it would be delivered that evening. We had three deliveries per day. We are now lucky to have one and luckier still if the post is delivered at all. The Minister can "tut-tut" all he likes, but this is a major problem. I asked him at Question Time to check to see if there is any merit in what I had been saying. He refused, saying there was not any need to check. Deputies are not putting down questions for nothing on matters that do not need checking.

There is a serious problem in the Dublin city and county postal service — I do not know what the position is in the rest of the country. As I told the Minister earlier, I resorted to a checking system: I sent myself a letter with a batch I was sending out from my office. I have frequent complaints from my constituents that they had not got letters even though I might have written to them sometimes nine days earlier. Many of my Christmas cards, which I posted a week before Christmas, did not arrive until 9 January. If the Minister likes I will bring these letters to him.

All I want to achieve is to get it into the Minister's head that there is a major problem so that he will not be coming in here telling us there is not. It seems to me that this is a part of a bigger jigsaw, a general breakdown in the public service. As the Minister tried to impute to me at Question Time, I do not blame the staff in the Department of Posts and Telegraphs, either postal or administrative, any more than I blame the staff in the Department of Social Welfare or the Department of Health where there are queues for birth certificates. I know the staff are doing their best. The complaint is against the management, and the Government are the management and they are making a total mess of it.

I am asking the Minister to check with other Deputies and with business concerns in the city. I had an appointment today at 2.30 with two Dublin businessmen. Deputy Kelly, who had put down the question could not be here and he asked me to come in on it. When I went to meet them I apologised for my delay and explained why I was late, and they told me — one of them is a Fianna Fáil cumann member in Dublin South Central——

Mr. Killilea

What he was doing talking to you I do not know.

Mr. Mitchell

He had business to discuss with me. I will give the Minister his name and business if he likes. Both told me that any letter which they want delivered reasonably promptly, or at all, they do not entrust to the postal service; they have it delivered by hand.

I have not come in here to attack the Minister of State personally, or the Minister. I know they are busy, trying to do their best in a big Department. However, I want to draw their attention to the fact that there is a problem in the areas I have mentioned and it has become particularly acute since the postal strike of 1979: the standard has not recovered to that level. The Minister need not be nodding his head — that is a fact. Many of us in the House get invitations to this or that function, but the invitations arrive two or three days after the function has taken place. It is not confined to Members on this side because many of my Fianna Fáil colleagues have had the same experience. Perhaps once or twice the organisers posted the invitations late, but when it happens frequently, and when it happens when a person has to resort to sending letters to himself in order to check the system, it is obvious that there is a massive problem.

I suspect that morale in the Post Office, at least in the postal delivery section, is lower than at any time even before the strike. I would ask the Minister to comment on this. During that prolonged strike, when there was a virtual lock-out of the men by the Government for 19 weeks, when the employees were nearly forced to starve, there was much bitterness and it seems to me it exists even today.

I do not want the Minister to say there is no problem. If he does he will be showered with evidence of the problem that has existed and still exists. It seems to be part of a general breakdown of the public services despite the fact that we are employing an additional 20,000 non-industrial public servants than was the case ten years ago. In that sense the Government must take the blame. They are the people who are presiding over this transdepartmental chaos. We want something done about it. If the Minister cannot do anything about the matter, let us hope there will be another government in power before long who will do something about it.

Minister of State at the Department of Posts and Telegraphs (Mr. Killilea)

As I stated in my reply today and again after listening to Deputy Mitchell, I want to make one point very clear. I did not say I would refuse to inquire. What I said was that I try to monitor the postal services, if not daily at least weekly. That is the truth.

Despite all the talk of trans-departmental failure suggested by the Deputy, I should like to state some facts. For the Dublin city postal services, in mid-1980 we had an 80 per cent first-class delivery, that is letters posted today and delivered tomorrow morning. Towards the end of 1980 we had an 85 per cent next day delivery of first-class mail. Following Christmas and up to 5 February we had a 90 per cent next day delivery of first-class mail. To prove that point I should like to inform the House that the amount of mail posted just now in Dublin which the Dublin city postal services dealt with, is 20 per cent above average, despite the atmosphere of gloom and doom Deputy Mitchell, Deputy Kelly and others have tried to create. At Question Time today I did not deny that we had a specific problem in Deputy Kelly's area, thinking that was the district about which he was asking the question. I acknowledged that there was a problem but we have solved it. Delivery of mail will improve every day in this city.

I welcome the increase in the number of postings in the city. In mid-1980 some 750,000 units per day were posted on one day and nearly all delivered the following day. Would it not be far better for the Deputy to accept that there are difficulties because the postal service is getting larger, which is what we want. Will he not acknowledge that an increase of 20 per cent above normal in postings is bound to create certain difficulties? I can assure him that those statistics stand. I explained to the Deputy the monitoring task being carried out.

Mr. Mitchell

Who does the monitoring?

Mr. Killilea

If the Deputy wants to make a complaint about a specific item he can ask me at any time, either privately or publicly. I will look into the matter and deal with it as courteously and efficiently as I can. All Fine Gael Deputies know that I try to do this but I get little appreciation from them.

Mr. Mitchell

Who does the monitoring?

Mr. Killilea

The monitoring is done weekly if not daily. There is no doubt that we have problems, but that is not strange when one considers the size of the postal service. It is a challenge we accept willingly. We hope that some day we will have a 100 per cent first-class delivery service. We have attained the figure of 90 per cent, the highest figure in the history of the State. The Deputy should acknowledge what has been done. He should support and thank the people employed in the service. Instead of which, he and others have come to this House in the past year insinuating that the technicians on the telecom side of the Department were not doing their job. However, when they discovered those people were doing their job they turned to the postal services. I will not take that from the Deputy or from any Member of Fine Gael until he or they produce facts. It is easy to stand up here and say things but I have stated the facts.

Mr. Mitchell

They are not the facts.

Mr. Killilea

The facts stand for themselves. I will stand over them at any time, in this House or in any other place. I should like the Deputy and others to show an appreciation of the work of the staff in the Department. There have been difficult times but it is up to us to lift their morale. That is our job. The accusations and allegations from Fine Gael have made me so sick that I cannot believe the people will ever see fit to allow them to sit on this side of the House again.

The Dáil adjourned at 5.20 p.m. until 2.30 p.m. on Wednesday, 18 March 1981.