I welcome back the chief executive and his team to resume the interrupted question and answer session. As regards the industrial relations area, I note the chairman's admonition that we should not discuss the matters before the Labour Court in detail. At the last committee meeting, everyone was astonished that for a long time Mr. Curtin had not been in contact with the four general secretaries of the trade unions or with the Irish Postmasters Union. Deputy Kelly alluded to this. Has Mr. Curtin contacted any of them in recent weeks? Has he met Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Ronayne or any of the other trade union witnesses? It seemed astonishing to the committee that he had not been in close contact with them.
There appears to be poor morale in An Post's workforce to judge from the letters I have from postal workers and from the post office network. Is it one of An Post's basic aims not to recognise trade unions and attack trade union membership at every turn? Is this why it has recently forbidden workers to attend Communications Workers Union, CWU, training courses which had been the norm for decades in the postal service? Is this why An Post refuses to give shop stewards the normal accommodation for meetings or to establish any kind of partnership fulcrum within the company? Has the company not engaged in a campaign to take out the trade unions? Recently for example, within a few weeks of acquiring the Snap printing contract, An Post moved unilaterally to make work changes without consulting the trade unions. There are many other issues. I do not wish to raise the current negotiations but it is clear that Mr. Curtin is not prepared to share information about the company's performance with either this committee or his workforce to have a successful end to the negotiations.
Did An Post treat the SDS owner-drivers reprehensibly? Undoubtedly their treatment has placed any similar future initiative by An Post in severe difficulties. In SDS, what is the position for people who changed their minds after listening to the committee debate or reading newspaper reports or the newsletters of An Post and the trade unions and decided they wished to stay with the company? Has An Post moved towards compulsory redundancy for them and has it abandoned the policy of voluntary redundancy?
The issue of quality of services is very important. The committee recently received a report from ComReg which states that it has established a specialist committee to review An Post's performance in this regard. There appears to be hypocrisy and a vicious circle regarding the recruitment ban. How can An Post deliver a quality service with such a ban? I have examined some recent delivery service results in the Dublin region. For example, in Dublin 5, part of my constituency, there were 12 days when deliveries could not be covered; in Dublin 7, 20 days; in Dublin 13, another part of my constituency, four days; in Dublin 17, my native area, 16 days; in Blackrock, 15 days; and in Balbriggan, an astonishing 19 days. Does this not show a ramshackle development of services? Mr. Curtin and his associates should be managing this issue, yet they have a recruitment ban. What is the situation regarding the ban? A worker from An Post sent me an advertisement from the FÁS website which stated that the company will soon be recruiting a mail sorter for the Sandyford depot of its letter post division. An Post is recruiting while telling this committee it is not. What is the truth? If we are to have a quality service, do we not need the required workforce?
We have heard the chief operations officer outline the outstanding issues that must be delivered and we all recognise this. However, as I stated at the previous committee meeting, is it not astonishing that general levels of basic pay in An Post are so low? The company is unique in that there have been no pay rises for nearly a year and a half. In particular, pensioners of the company have been treated abominably. Does Mr. Curtin accept that if he wishes to lead the company to success, An Post must deliver the terms of the Sustaining Progress programme?
Is Mr. Curtin prepared to provide to us the proportion of the fees that An Post receives for BillPay, the Post Office Savings Bank, POSB, television licences and postage in comparison with what is paid to the post office network? Can we have transparency on this issue?
A few minutes ago, Mr. Curtin spoke at length to the Chairman, but the operators of the postal network need to know where they stand. Should they not get a better deal? This is a basic point. As my colleague said, Members recently met postmasters from throughout the country, including County Longford. Deputy McGuinness and others were quoted to the effect that we were taken aback by the kind of reward that people receive for giving a fantastic service in remote rural locations. Why did An Post not inform the Irish Postmasters Union about the pilot scheme for ten offices before the previous meeting rather than on the steps of the courthouse? Why can An Post not implement a pilot scheme for 100 or 150 offices to support the people from the Beara Peninsula up to Donegal who wish to deliver a quality service, but need the company to give them a decent reward and get them computerised as soon as possible? Why will there be such a lengthy evaluation period and why run a pilot scheme in the first place?
As to the management team's performance, I note that this high quality team attending this meeting probably costs several million euro in rewards, emoluments and salaries. At the previous committee meeting, Mr. Curtin informed us that An Post spent more than €2.5 million on consultancy services. There does not appear to be a problem with giving rewards to management. The chairperson received a rise of 150% in her salary while pensioners, on a miserable €200 a week, were told that they were not entitled to a rise. What is the position in 2005 concerning consultancy services and the extensive management structure that the company seems to have? Deputy Finneran is correct that the Minister and this committee were treated like total idiots by a previous management team regarding the projection for 2003. What is An Post's projection for 2005? Does the projection take into account the payment of the terms of Sustaining Progress and the delivery of a settlement for the workforce and the postmasters which will give this important national service stability in the future? What tasks are consultants Dr. Tony McNulty and Mr. Tim Hastings carrying out with regard to the management team? The communications chief, Mr. Foley, kindly sent us a copy of the Economist from several weeks ago with information on the postal service. The committee members had read this already but it highlights the difficulties that postal services grapple with and the difficulty in finding solutions. Is it fair to say that the future of the management team depends on the delivery of a success?
A reasonable amount of time has passed and we are receiving feedback of bad morale and annoyance with the lack of a spirit of partnership in the negotiations. There will be other management teams in future. In two years' time I may not be the Labour Deputy for Dublin North-East. That is a decision the people must make but I will do my best in the interim to keep my position. The same applies to the delegation in that there may be different management teams in future with different spirits of partnership. The Taoiseach spoke on the desperate efforts he is making to keep the Northern Ireland peace process on track. The same considerable efforts must be made in respect of this important national company.