The mistake that led to An Post failing to deliver one million letters and cards due by Christmas Day on time was caused by the prioritisation of mail at sorting centres, the company's chief executive Mr John Hynes said today.
He rejected reports that the error had been caused by the failure of a newly-introduced machine to sort irregular shaped envelopes.
The Minister for Communications the Marine and Natural Resources, Mr Dermot Ahern, today met with Mr Hynes. Mr Ahern said he called the meeting because of the level of public concern and was given an assurance by Mr Hynes that the error will not be repeated.
Mr Hynes said he was disappointed that changes in sorting procedures had been successfully introduced throughout 2002 but that the company had "stumbled towards the end of the year". He said An Post regretted the disappointment caused to customers.
He also conceded that "in hindsight" it was a mistake to introduce new procedures at the Dublin sorting centre - where the error occurred - in the run up to Christmas.
He also said reports that the error was caused by irregular sized envelopes were incorrect. "We can handle all shapes and sizes of mail," he said.
The problem, he said, was due to the priorisation process at the sorting centre where company mail is processed ahead of domestic letters and packages.
"Business customers and international inbound mail for which we have contractual obligations, we deliver first as a priority over all other mail. Social mail, such as Christmas cards, was the piece that we were unable to clear in the end," Mr Hynes told RTE Radio.
He added that reports that 1.2 million pieces mail were not delivered on time were inaccurate. He said 200,000 items were posted late. Media reports also suggested that the machine failed to read hand-written addresses.
Early this week many of the letters had still not been delivered though An Post say the backlog has now been cleared.
The delays occurred at the sorting centre in Dublin - An Post's largest - which serves Dublin, Louth, Meath and Wicklow.