An Post has made a pretax profit of €41 million for 2005 but sales at the company remain static as mail volumes continue to fall.

The company posted turnover of €752 million in 2005, but this was up by just €2 million on the year before. The number of mail postal items per head of the population dropped from 187 to 183 and the number of letter post items delivered was down slightly to 756 million a year.

While the pretax profit was up from €7 million in 2004, the company's chairwoman, Margaret McGinley, said "even a minimal slippage in revenue, cost control or change management can trigger a rapidly deteriorating financial crisis".

The pretax performance was boosted by almost €60 million from the sale of two mobile top-up companies. At an operating level the company posted a profit of €16.1 million, up from a €3 million loss the year before. However, Ms McGinley admitted the company's cash position was a "particular source of satisfaction" to the company. The company had net funds of €185 million at the end of the year, but chief executive Donal Curtin said at least €80 million of this would be needed for redundancy payments for staff leaving the company.

He said capital investment would also be needed at the company. He said their physical stock had declined quite severely.

Mr Curtin, who was paid a total remuneration package of €416,000 in 2005, will finish his three-year term shortly. Interviews have taken place for his successor and an announcement is expected shortly. As part of Mr Curtin's remuneration, performance-related bonuses of €64,000 were paid.

This was criticised last night by the Communication Worker's Union, which said the payments were astonishing. "This is a shocking, but typical, display of double standards by management in An Post. It's something that we've come to expect from this belligerent and incompetent management team," said national officer Sean McDonagh.

At his presentation Mr Curtin struck a different tone, saying management at the company had turned the company around. "When the 2005 performance is combined with that of 2004, the reality that the finances of An Post have returned to some stability becomes apparent".

Mr Curtin said the "stark reality" was that An Post was operating in markets that were growing at slower rates than the general economy. According to the annual report, the company is operating with a margin of 2.1 per cent.