Minister warns An Post over Christmas delays

The Minister for Communications, Mr Dermot Ahern, today warned An Post not to repeat the delivery delays of last Christmas.

"Last Christmas there were some considerable difficulties particularly in the North East area and basically I just wanted to reiterate the [hope] that that doesn't recur," the Minister said.

Speaking on radio, the Minister said he was expressing concern that there may have been problems with the postal delivery recently.

"I myself had a very important letter which took up to nine days to be delivered and I get quite a number of complaints from people to my department andconstituency office," Mr Ahern added.

The Minister said that ultimately "it was up to Comreg, the independent regulator, to assess the quality of service of An Post".

However, the Minister did add that in meetings with An Post it had assured him delays would not happen again this year.

The Minster also said he approves "in principle" with the idea of An Post ceasing to collect the TV licence fee.

"They have to concentrate on the core business which is delivering letters and packages", the Minister said.