An Post treating Kerry with ‘utter contempt’ says councillor as Christmas cards still arriving
The KerrymanKerry’s postal service has come under fire as a councillor reports Christmas cards still being delivered in some parts of the county.
Councillor Charlie Farrelly said An Post was treating people with “complete and utter contempt” and called for the government funded service to be improved.
The ailing Post Office network has received €10m per annum from the government since 2023, with another €75m set to be spent over the next five years.
The network was down to just 841 shops nationally towards the end of last year, with around a 32pc drop in the number of transactions at post offices since 2019.
Dingle-based Councillor Breandán Fitzgerald warned at a recent Kerry County Council meeting there were significant mail delivery issues, with people still receiving long-delayed Christmas mail.
With the moving of the sorting office from Dingle to Tralee, he argued there was not enough staff to cover shifts when employees were off sick.
He claimed that some west Kerry residents were going weeks without a delivery.
“If An Post isn’t delivering, I don’t know what they’re for,” he said.
Councillor Charlie Farrelly said the issue was more widespread, with residents in Castleisland also being affected.
He cited the example of two post boxes that had been out of order, one for a few weeks and one since October last year.
When the box which had been unused for two weeks was repaired, Cllr Farrelly said it was only then that the mail inside was posted.
“It’s a disgrace,” he said, “what Cllr Fitzgerald is saying is absolutely true but its also true for the whole county…An Post really is treating people with complete and utter contempt.”
He added that An Post employed a third-party contractor to fix broken mailboxes.
Councillor Dierdre Ferris also slammed An Post, drawing from her experience in Oncology Clinics, where patients were missing appointments because their appointment notification letter hadn’t arrived in time.
“They get a grant from the state which is public funded and they should be held accountable for the failure to adequately carry out the service that they’re getting money to do,” she argued.
The additional €75m funding for the network announced in the budget was welcomed by the Irish Postmasters’ Union who said it would secure access to vital government, financial and postal services.
“We are a huge economic driver for local communities, generating a lot of economic activity, and we were under serious threat, with costs going up,” said Seán Martin, the union president.
“We could not increase our prices, so this is a lifeline for us, and we are grateful to the ministers for pushing it through.”
Mr Martin said that between 40 and 60 post offices had been closing per annum up to 2022, but that about three-quarters of postmasters had felt they would be able to continue in business if Government support was extended.
“They are facing higher costs, including the increase in the minimum wage, sick pay and auto enrolment,” he said. “It is the bigger post offices that have been struggling – and the network only survives because of them.”