Sir, – John Hynes (Opinion, September 25th) joins a long list of individuals pouring scorn on the public service. The Post Office was one of the first institutions split up as a government department in 1984. Look at what we have now: a telecoms company that was forced into examinership and a postal delivery service that was threatened with a fine of up to €12 million for its failure to reach delivery targets set by the communications regulator, ComReg.
Mr Hynes oversaw much of this decline in An Post where casualisation of staff became the norm and the pride that many public servants had in doing an important job well became secondary.
My late father, who worked in the post office for 42 years, recounted that as a junior clerk during the second World War or the Emergency that it was possible to post a letter in any provincial Irish town and guarantee next morning delivery to London. Imagine that, and all done by public servants! – Yours, etc,