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McRedmond rejects 'reckless' report on An Post's finances

McRedmond rejects 'reckless' report on An Post's finances

RTÉ News​a day ago
Claims that An Post is on the brink of financial collapse as "utter garbage", its CEO has said.
The Irish Daily Mail reported An Post is facing a "dire financial situation", alleging that cash reserves have dropped below €1 million.
It was also reported Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan told the Cabinet the postal service would have made a "substantial loss" last year had it not been for revenue generated by election-related post.
However, David McRedmond said this is untrue, calling the report "utter garbage".
"I'm absolutely furious to read something like that," he said.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, he said: "The results were presented to Cabinet yesterday.
"They showed the highest revenue we've ever had, over a billion in revenue for the first time.
"They show that we grew our earnings from €38 million to €55 million.
"They showed that our net profit was €10 million."
The An Post CEO said the service "is performing extremely well", adding it has "got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe".
Mr McRedmond admitted that while An Post did receive a financial boost from local, general and European elections last year, the service still would have avoided a loss.
"We got a big boost from the elections last year, but if it wasn't the elections, it would be something else," he said, adding that elections also incur "huge costs" for the service.
He said An Post wants "more cash because we're growing so fast".
"We are constantly growing, so we need more working capital," he said.
"We talked to Government about that, but this is all coming from a position of strength," he added.
Mr McRedmond said the report was disrespectful to both staff and customers of An Post.
"My only concerns are the 10,000 employees of An Post, reading a wholly garbage article this morning when the company that they work really hard for is doing really well," he said.
The staff, he said, have been "so disrespected by this".
"The other is our customers because we have big global commercial customers and if they read this morning that An Post is on the brink, then they're going to think, maybe we should go to someone else," he said.
"It's reckless in the extreme," he added.
Mr McRedmond said: "I'm talking to Government about it.
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