THE CHIEF EXECUTIVE of An Post has apologised to an Oireachtas committee over an incident where a volume of mail in the Dublin 12 area went missing last year. 

David McRedmond was questioned by Fine Gael Senator Evanne Ní Chuilinn over an “unfortunate situation” whereby the post of locals went missing. 

The Journal reported last year that gardaí were investigating the alleged theft of the volume of material from An Post, involving a member of staff at a post office. 

At the time, An Post said it had located letters and small packages that had gone undelivered from a route in Crumlin – with many residents in Dublin 12 having said that they had not received mail from the postal service for up to eight weeks. 

“An Garda Síochána is liaising with the affected service provider on the matter,” a spokesperson said last year, adding that investigations were ongoing.

“We are very apologetic about that,” said McRedmond said today. 

“We’ve worked with every single customer who is affected by that,” he added, telling the committee members today that such a case is “very, very much the exception”.

“We have the highest quality of service of any postal service in Europe in terms of our delivery network. And I am very proud of our postmen and postwomen,” he added. 

There’s nobody more furious whenever such an incident occurs than the 10,000 employees, he told the committee. 

“You are going to get occasional instances. We have a very strong security department in An Post that investigates every single issue and looks at every single issue. So I don’t want to dismiss it as being not serious, extremely serious, but I do want to say it’s not something that is systemic,” he added. 

Speaking to The Journal last year, one resident said her house hadn’t seen any delivery service since late October, with the exception of polling cards. 

Risk of closure

Much of the committee meeting today focused on the risk of 400 post offices closing next year if €15 million per year in funding is not provided by government. 

Sandra Tormey, General Secretary, Irish Postmaster’s Union said a survey of their members revealed that 40% of postmasters are considering closing up shop. 

She said current funding, which will cease at the end of this year, prevented closures but told committee members that unless it is replaced the decline will start again next year. 

The post office network could be the “front door” for all government services, the committee was told, with An Post and the IPU stating that post offices in rural and urban areas offer a face-to-face service in many areas, including banking. 

The committee was told there are opportunities for the post offices to offer more services, such as community banking, e-commerce and government services, such as being a point service for the electoral register, which is earmarked for reform. 

The Department of Communications said it supported the proposed €5 million increase in annual funding stating that a decision on the matter would be made in October’s budget.