Vol. 508 No. 1
228 Mrs. Owen asked the Minister for Public Enterprise if she will make a statement on the attempts of An Post to increase the postal rates for newspaper postage; the response, if any, she has received from An Post as to the reason for its attempted unilateral decision; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [17700/99]
Increases in postal rates for newspapers do not require my approval, as they come within the ambit of a general approval given to An Post by the Government in 1991 to fix its own charges for services outside the monopoly area reserved to the company under the Postal and Telecommunications Services Act, 1983.
Recent legislation at European Union level obliges national postal operators to charge cost-reflecting tariffs for services provided in the non-reserved area. Accordingly, An Post could not continue to earn less from its customers using these services than it was being charged for delivery by the national postal operator in the country of destination.
Regarding the notice, prior consultation and scheduling of newspaper postal tariffs, An Post have apologised to me for the lack of notice which arose in the context of their announcement of proposed tariff changes for this category of service last July.
The company has assured me that in future years they will implement such changes in January, following a period of consultation with customers commencing in the previous October. Given that cross-Border prices charged by other postal operators to An Post will change each year on foot of EU postal legislation, tariffs introduced by the company in January of any year will need to reflect the impact of such changes.
I understand that the increases in postal tariff charged by An Post for newspapers, which were announced by the company in July 1999, will come into effect in January 2000 and will require further adjustment to allow for the impact of any increases to cross-Border prices as of the latter date. An Post will work with individual customers in this category where necessary to assist them in making the transition to the new tariffs regime.
