An Post boss criticises Government's 'irresponsible leak' on finances

BreakingNews.ie

16-07-2025

The chief executive of An Post, David McRedmond, has expressed his fury at what he described as the 'irresponsible leak' by Minister for Communications Patrick O'Donovan into the finances of An Post.
Media reports had said that Mr O'Donovan 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 posts last year when general, local and European elections were held, the organisation would have made a substantial loss.
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That was 'simply not true', Mr McRedmond told RTÉ radio's Morning Ireland.
'Look, 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.
'I'm absolutely furious to read something like that. The company presented its results, the results were presented to Cabinet yesterday. They showed the highest revenue we've ever had, over a billion revenues for the first time. They showed that we grew our earnings from €38 million to €55 million. They showed 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 operator in Europe. So I just don't understand it.'
Election boost
Mr McRedmond acknowledged that An Post had received a boost from the elections last year, but said that if it had not been the elections 'it would be something else".
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'Yes, we want more cash because we're growing so fast, because we're growing in commercial parcel markets. We used to get paid for everything up front when people buy stamps. We're now in a commercial parcel market. We get paid on 60 or 90 days credit. We are constantly growing. So we need more working capital. We talked to government about that, but this is all coming from a position of strength.
'The thing that annoyed me about the report is it talks about a report from New Era, a report from somewhere. They're all just reports of reports. I have audited accounts. It's a wholly different level of a wholly different standard.'
'Untrue' cash reserves claim
Mr McRedmond also denied a claim that An Post's cash reserves had fallen to below €1 million.
'That's untrue. So our cash reserves we have at the end of the year we have €38 million cash reserves. And this year, so far this year we are performing well ahead of our budget and our budget for this year is to beat last year. So I just don't understand this. I don't know or understand what the purpose of it is. I don't understand why they'd want to say these things. '
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Mr McRedmond said he had two concerns – 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. Nobody's thanked them for what they did during Covid, it's so disrespectful".
'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. They're going to think, well, maybe we should go with someone else. So it's reckless in the extreme.
'I'm talking to government advisors. I hope there's just some big misunderstanding somewhere. And the company, as I say, is doing really well. Yes, I am very clear that we say we want our borrowing cap lifted, which was put in place in 1984.
"And so it's way out of date. And we need greater flexibility on our working capital. We need some things like that. We want government to approve certain changes to regulations. These are normal conversations as I say, coming from a position where the company has had one of its best years.
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He added: 'We have no plan to close post offices. None. No plan. We occasionally relocate or we do something. Very occasionally, post offices will close because somebody retires and we can't get somebody to replace them.
"But the post office network is doing well. And it will continue to do well, but quite rightly, quite rightly postmasters are saying to government, you want us to do more government services, pay us for them, pay us an economic rate for them. And that's what the postmasters are saying to government and we support them in that. But no, there's no threat.'