‘No, it wasn't me' – Patrick O'Donovan denies leaking ‘garbage' claims that An Post is on ‘brink of financial collapse'
'That report is utter garbage' – An Post CEO 'furious' over front page newspaper story on company being 'on the brink'Communications Minister denies leaking the claims: 'No, it wasn't me'Irish Daily Mail political editor defends article
Communications Minister Patrick O'Donovan has denied leaking damaging claims about An Post to the media, after its CEO dismissed reports it was on the 'brink' of financial collapse as 'utter garbage'.
'No, it wasn't me,' the minister said this morning when asked who leaked claims to a national newspaper.
Today's Irish Daily Mail front page leads with a headline: 'An Post on the brink'. The article reports that the "State's postal service cash reserves drop below €1m for the first time – but Cabinet sources warn there will be no bailout'.
It reports An Post is facing a "dire financial situation".
It detailed how Mr 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.
Speaking this morning from a holiday in Italy on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland, An Post CEO David McRedmond said he was "absolutely furious'. He described the newspaper article as 'utter garbage' and 'utterly irresponsible reporting'.
Meanwhile, Mr O'Donovan told the Claire Byrne radio programme; 'I heard David McRedmond's interview this morning and, first of all, I agree with him.
"And you know, the issue here is quite actually extraordinary. A set of accounts was brought forward by me yesterday to the Cabinet meeting and I'm not going to breach Cabinet confidentialities because I'm constitutionally prevented from doing that, as everybody is.
'But obviously somebody decided that that wasn't going to be the case. And it's not the first time.'
The minister said An Post had 'been transformed over the last number of years under [Mr McRedmond's] leadership'. He said he wasn't 'going to get into Cabinet discussions' on live radio.
'Maybe if the person who said that [the threat to An Post] put their name in the paper, you should be asking them. What I can say as a shareholder is An Post returned to profit last year,' he continued.
'These are nameless people again and it's not the first time I've been talking to you about a nameless person,' he said.
Speaking of Mr McRedmond again, he said: 'We are meeting him very regularly. He wants to work with the Government… That's what a CEO does.
"But how a nameless minister or alleged nameless minister or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying this, the situation is dire. I don't know how they will come up with that.'
Responding to the article, Mr McRedmond said the company was not 'on the brink'.
"That report is utter garbage,' he said. 'I'm here in Italy on my holidays, I'm absolutely furious to read something like that.
'The company presented its results [to the Cabinet yesterday]. They showed the highest revenue we've ever had, over €1 billion revenue for the first time.
'They showed that we grew our earnings from €38 million to €55 million. They showed that our net profit was at €10 million.
'The company is performing extremely well. We've got the highest level of parcel growth of any postal operation in Europe, so I just don't understand it.'
The Irish Daily Mail article also added that the minister 'has briefed the Cabinet on the bleak financial realities facing the State's postal service'.
'The Cabinet was told that without the significant once-off revenue generated from election-related post last year – when general, local and European elections were held – the organisation would have made a 'substantial loss',' the article continued.
Mr McRedmond said: 'It's just simply not true, and it's not how companies work'.
'Yes, we got a big boost from the elections last year, but before and after the elections, it would be something else, and with the elections, we've huge costs with them.
'This is utterly irresponsible reporting. It was an irresponsible leak from a government minister, which is wholly unacceptable.
'These are not the actions of a responsible shareholder. The company is doing really well. Yes, we want more cash because we're growing so fast, because we're growing in commercial parcel markets.
'We talked to the Government about that, but this is all coming from a position of strength.'
He said it was untrue to say the company's cash reserves had fallen below €1 million.
"At the end of the year, we've €38 million cash reserves, and so far this year, we are performing well ahead of our budget, and our budget for this year is to beat last year.
"My two concerns [are] the 10,000 employees of An Post reading a wholly garbage article this morning, when the company that they worked really hard for is doing really well, and they've been so disrespected by this.
'And 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 with someone else'. So it's reckless in the extreme.
Mr McRedmond said An Post had 'no plans' to close any post offices.
In defence of the article, Craig Hughes, the political editor at the Irish Daily Mail and author of the article, told the Irish Independent: 'David McRedmond did not dispute the fact that their cash reserves fell below €1m during last year. If he wishes to do so, he can publish the cash flow data throughout the year.
'The Cabinet was told that without the exceptional revenue generated through the mail on the back of the three elections, they would have made a significant loss.
"I note Minister Patrick O'Donovan did not refute these facts on air on RTÉ with Claire Byrne,' he added.
Later speaking to Newstalk's The Pat Kenny Show, Mr Hughes said: 'As someone from rural Ireland, we've seen lots of services being stripped out over the years.
"But initially it was just the banks, the post office, in many cases, is the last service that is existing in some communities. I think it would be very politically unpalatable if there was a wave of closures there.
'I know the postmasters' union were predicting that without getting the €15 million, the increase of €5 million, that you could have up to 400 post office closures around the country imminently.
'The Government is currently giving a subvention of €10 million annually to the postmasters. They say it isn't enough. [Michael Healy-Rae] thinks it should be the €15 million which they asked for in that bit of research that they put out there.
'But of course, very difficult for them to negotiate a better long-term deal with An Post if they're having these long-term challenges as well.'
Mr Healy-Rae told Newstalk's The Pat Kenny Show that Mr Hughes's article was 'giving a very important issue a national spotlight'.
'We have about 900 post offices in operation in Ireland at the moment. But if you go back, for instance, to 2018, we lost 159,' he said.
Following An Post's CEO interview, former RTÉ presenter and Liveline host Joe Duffy praised Mr McRedmond on his social media.
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