Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 14 December 2004
163 Mr. McCormack asked the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he will make a statement on the decision of An Post to discontinue the special delivery service from January 2005; the reasons for this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33136/04]
Amharc ar fhreagraThere have been heavy losses in recent years at An Post's parcel delivery subsidiary, the special delivery service or SDS. These losses amounted to €18 million over a three year period to 2003, with losses of €12 million in 2003 alone. Further losses, forecast at €10 million, are likely to be sustained in 2004. In these circumstances, the board of An Post at its July meeting decided to close SDS and to re-integrate the parcels business into the letter post division. A total of 180 SDS jobs will be re-integrated into letter post and an entirely voluntary redundancy package will be introduced for an anticipated 270 job losses. The redundancy package will be funded by property disposals.
It is my understanding that, following a request from ICTU, the national implementation body held a hearing to determine whether the company breached the partnership terms of Sustaining Progress in making its decision to reintegrate SDS. The national implementation body, as part of its determination proposed that an independent facilitator be agreed to share the financial details and institute a process for information sharing. Mr. Peter Cassells has been appointed as facilitator and the process has been up and running for some time.
I stress that both An Post management and the Communications Workers' Union have agreed that issues arising from the closure of SDS would be handled through the national implementation body process. Any unresolved issues arising from this process can be referred to the Labour Relations Commission and-or Labour Court, as appropriate.
