AN POST has admitted that it illegally ended the practice of allowing customers to forward misdirected letters to their intended recipients by crossing off the printed address and writing in the correct one before posting.
A spokeswoman confirmed the company was not fully compliant with regulations but said it was taking legal advice.
Last month, The Irish Timesreported that the semi-State had put an end to the long-standing practice because of its worsening financial situation.
The arrangement has traditionally allowed considerate householders or tenants to forward on misaddressed mail to previous occupants at no expense to themselves.
In recent months, however, An Post has started returning misaddressed post to the original sender.
A former employee subsequently pointed out that the redirection of post was covered by regulations dating back to 1939, which have not been repealed.
The Inland Post Warrant 1939 states that “any postal packet may be redirected from its original address, or any substituted address, to the same addressee at any other address”.
The redirection service is free provided the letter is readdressed and sent on the day it arrives at the wrong address; otherwise, normal postage rates apply.
When asked about the regulation, an An Post spokeswoman said that while the company was not fully compliant with the warrant, it was fully compliant with the EU postal directive of 1997. However, this has nothing to say about redirection of post.
The spokeswoman said An Post was currently taking legal advice on the requirement to change the 1939 warrant “to bring it in line with what customers expect from a modern postal service”.
“The decision to change the redirection system was taken in the best interest of our customers and in order to maintain public confidence in the security of the Irish Postal Service. Protecting the integrity of the service is essential.”
Sources say that the increasing use of automated sorting machines has made the redirecting of letters more troublesome.
The machinery codes mail so that if a letter is manually readdressed the machine reads the old code and it goes back to the first address.
An Post offers a commercial redirection services for people moving house or business address but this costs up to €150 a year.