An announcement by members of the Irish Postmasters' Union (IPU) that they intend to continue industrial action indefinitely in their dispute with An Post over pay rates, marks a further deterioration in the quality of sub post office services.
An Post does not appear to be particularly concerned about the dispute which will - at the very minimum - delay postal deliveries by at least two hours each day for businesses and households.No arrangements have been made to resume those inter-party negotiations that broke down last Thursday.
Pay demands by the IPU are not directly linked to a restructuring of the sub post office network that has been under way since earlier this year. But that is no consolation for those consumers in urban and rural areas who are being discommoded by the dispute. They can anticipate a further reduction in services as An Post moves to transfer hundreds of small outlets to an agency basis over the coming months and to close others. At a time when lip-service is being paid to rural regeneration and development by some Government ministers, the treatment of this semi-State business is instructive.
Two years ago, the then Minister with responsibility for An Post, Mrs O'Rourke, commissioned a report on the cost of sustaining the entire network and was advised it would come to more than €90 million by 2005. Earlier this year, her Cabinet colleagues, led by the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, decided the price was too great to pay and a scheme of redundancy payments for those opting out and incentives designed to transfer sub post offices to an agency basis, was agreed. The development was in line with the views of An Post management which had insisted it could no longer sustain a network of 1,900 offices, when half of that number conducted 95 per cent of its business.
Until the uncertainty surrounding the network had been resolved, An Post argued, it would not be able to secure investment from an international strategic partner. In recent months a pilot scheme at 21 locations throughout the State involved the transfer of sub post offices to a postal agency basis. The development, in many cases, led to shorter opening hours. It is expected that hundreds of other sub post offices will be invited to join that scheme within the next six months. All in all, a reduction in the level of service for the citizen is being planned.