Cllr Anthony Kelly has strongly criticised new legislation which seeks to open up the Irish postal sector to competition. The County Wexford Sinn Féin candidate in the coming election warned that the bill would create a situation where our postal service could be privatised which would see the obligation on companies to provide a six day service fall victim to profits.
“Currently An Post offers an excellent service, boosted by the universal service obligation which provides us with six day delivery and collection,” Cllr Kelly said. “The architects of this bill would assure us all that its success will not mean the end of the universal service obligation, but looks what happened in Britain where a similar bill was passed and similar promises were made by its authors. The English government promised that privatisation would not spell the end for six day service, but now it has emerged that provision of six day service is dependent on profit margins, meaning that if a postal company can prove its losing money, then they can end their universal service obligation. What is to stop that from happening here?”
Cllr Kelly admitted that he knew of no immediate plans to privatise An Post but warned that the EU and IMF had these designs in mind. “It’s clear to me that the EU/IMF bail-out for the banks will demand the privatisation of many of our states assets in return. If An Post is to be asset stripped that will mean a much poorer postal service for the people of this state, and the almost certain end of six day delivery and collection services in rural Ireland. Sinn Féin will vote against this bill and all similar bills aimed at stripping this country bare.”
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