Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

There is one comment I want to make about An Post in the context of its parcel service. The Minister mentioned it as well. Every road in the country we go down, we see nothing but couriers delivering all kinds of stuff. They are all private businesses and they are all obviously able to compete and make money. It seems very strange to me that An Post cannot be in that field and cannot be doing an awful lot more of that work. An Post is a State company that has had years of experience and that has a depot in practically every second parish in the country from the point of view of its post offices. However, we see that the vast majority of all of this work is being done by private companies. That just does not make sense. I know perhaps some of the working conditions of the people who are delivering for some of these private companies may be well below the standards we would expect to see the An Post drivers working to, and certainly would be lower, but it is an issue that needs to be dealt with. Any assistance we can give to An Post to allow it to compete better in that market should be offered. It is clear that there is a huge opportunity in this regard. There will be further opportunities as we move forward. More people, unfortunately, are buying online and half the stuff they buy they send back. All of this needs to be addressed, but An Post is in a central position to do more of that work.

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