Latest news with #AnPost
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
An Post ‘continuing' work to rectify customer direct debits ‘error'
An Post said it is still working to rectify an issue that is holding up direct debit payments for some of its around 90,000 current account customers. The State-owned postal group confirmed on Thursday evening that it was 'working to correct an error' that led to some direct debits being recalled incorrectly, meaning vendors did not receive customer payments despite the money appearing to leave their An Post Money accounts. On Friday morning, a spokeswoman for An Post said that 'work is continuing to rectify the issue' and that it will update on progress later. She said the postal operator continues to expect the error to be resolved by midday on Friday. READ MORE It is not clear how many customers have been impacted by the error. An Post had some 90,000 current account customers in 2024, according to its most recent annual report, but the postal service said the issue only affected those with direct debit payments scheduled for Thursday. [ An Post chief 'absolutely furious' at Cabinet leak as Taoiseach expresses 'full confidence' in company Opens in new window ] The spokeswoman said the error affected only a 'small number' of An Post Money account holders. One customer told The Irish Times they were alerted to the issue when their mobile phone network operator did not receive a regular payment from their An Post Money current account. The money had left the account, they said, but had not been received by the vendor, and An Post was unable to tell them when the money would be returned. The customer said they were advised by An Post to pay the vendor directly instead. The spokeswoman for An Post said: 'We are not advising [and never did advise] customers to make payments directly to any vendors.' The Central Bank of Ireland, which regulates An Post Money, was approached for comment.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Tariffs on EU imports could result in 25,000 job losses in US, Trump is told
The imposition of 15 per cent tariffs on EU imports of wine and spirits would result in 'more than 25,000 American job losses and nearly $2 billion in lost sales', a coalition of US trade associations has warned. Eoin Burke-Kennedy has the details . With the 15 per cent tariff now in place what impact will it have on Irish businesses? Many exporters were tight-lipped this week but one saw it as good for beef exports and the tariff on Kerrygold butter will actually reduce. Paul Colgan rounds up views on both sides of the Atlantic on the impact of this higher tariff. State training agency Solas is facing legal action from a number of companies who argue that it is breaking competition law by offering its own safe pass courses to builders. Barry O'Halloran has the details. Terry Hughes owns a company that is Ireland's biggest cash manager, with ambitions to grow in other markets. He's achieved this in spite of enduring 200 armed robberies, a tiger kidnapping and his bank loans being called in post the 2008 crash. Colin Gleeson has the details of Hughes' story . READ MORE Irish employee benefits platform Kota has unveiled a pension platform to help employers deal with the upcoming introduction of auto-enrolment pensions. Ciara O'Brien reports. An Post said it could be midday today before it can resolve an error that is holding up direct debit payments for some of its near 90,000 current account customers. Ian Curran has the details. The new owners of the five-star Shelbourne Hotel in Dublin will begin a €50 million upgrade of the property from late October, to refresh 226 bedrooms there. Ciarán Hancock has the details. The Financial Services Union has instructed its members at Bank of Ireland to continue with their current working practices in a dispute with the lender over changes to hybrid working arrangements that are due to take effect in September. Emmet Malone reports on the row. If you'd like to read more about the issues that affect your finances try signing up to On the Money , the weekly newsletter from our personal finance team, which will be issued every Friday to Irish Times subscribers.
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Daniel O'Connell: A ‘coward' with a complicated legacy
To mark the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O'Connel l, commemorated this week, An Post issued a stamp designed by graphic artist David Rooney which raised eyebrows due to its inclusion of a TV aerial. An Post defended the design as alluding to 'the very modern, global range and impact of O'Connell'. The stamp captures O'Connell in all his pomp; a triumphant procession in a gilded chariot through Dublin following his release from Richmond jail in 1844. He had called for the previous year, 1843, to be 'the year of repeal' of the Act of Union and proposed the convening of an Irish 'Council of Three Hundred'; a parliament of district 'delegates'. The planned 'monster meeting' in Clontarf that October in pursuit of repeal was proclaimed illegal by the British government and O'Connell famously backed down to prevent bloodshed, after which he was convicted of sedition and imprisoned in Richmond, though in a suite in the prison governor's house. This was a turning point; what is notable about Rooney's stamp is not just its surrealism but that it depicts a triumphant image that masked the end; sticking with Rooney's modern media landscape imagining, O'Connell's ratings were falling. As historian Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh observes, the cancellation of the Clontarf meeting 'seriously damaged O'Connell's aura of invincibility ... with repeal stopped in its tracks for the moment, O'Connell reverted, as he had ever done, to exploring alternative possibilities of renewed co-operation with the Whigs, and indeed expressed interest in canvassing federalist ideas as an alternative to repeal. READ MORE 'The young intellectuals found this compromising disposition and dilution of the demand for repeal on O'Connell's part unworthy and unacceptable. The old leader, used to being followed rather than corrected, found the self-righteous and incorruptible stance of his young critics naive and, in a sense, impertinent.' [ TV aerial in Daniel O'Connell stamp is a 'visual signal' to the modern age, not AI, says An Post Opens in new window ] The impertinence endured. When Todd Andrews was one of the teenage members of a Sinn Féin club in Dublin in 1918. 'It was accepted that Daniel O'Connell was a coward because he called off the Clontarf meeting, and, what was worse in the eyes of the Sinn Féin club members of 1917-21, he was a politician,' he said. That generation came to their own reckoning with politics shortly afterwards; some managed to swallow the bitter pill of compromise; others never came to terms with what they regarded as the great betrayal that created a Free State within the empire rather than a republic. But they were all inheritors of O'Connell's legacy: abstention from Westminster, after all, was an updated version of O'Connell's 'Council of Three Hundred' idea. And while Irish republicans in the early 20th century may have revered O'Connell's young critics, Thomas Davis and John Mitchel among them, their grandparents knew what it had been to live through the era of O'Connell as 'the Liberator' and champion of Catholic emancipation. [ The parallels between Nelson Mandela and Daniel O'Connell are many Opens in new window ] O'Connell's personal vanity was a propelling force: 'I wish to God I could make my motives so pure and disinterested as to care little for gratitude and applause,' he wrote to his wife Mary in 1825. He cared greatly for those things but also succeeded in the 1820s in carrying what historian Paul Bew termed 'a massive weight of historic expectation' as 'leader of a novel form of popular politics'. Historians have also documented his sectarian impulses, the extravagance of his spending, his relative disinterest in the Irish language, and the violence of the rhetoric he used to denounce political opponents. But his emotional impact on Irish Catholics discriminated against by the penal laws and ingrained racism was profound. Consider, for example, his appeal to the Clare electorate in 1828: 'Our Protestant friends really think we are beings of degraded minds – that because we are Catholics, we have neither reasoning nor understanding; they imagine we are creatures of an inferior grade to themselves ... I may be considered the representative of the suffering of my country.' [ Daniel O'Connell would have enjoyed his life being celebrated 250 years on, says historian Opens in new window ] As evidenced by the commemorative stamp, where to place O'Connell and his relevance remains complicated. Any considered assessment must include debate about the merits of moral force, his placing of the Irish question at the centre of British politics and his international humanitarianism and championing of the anti-slavery cause, which was genuine and costly in relation to his standing in America. In 1938, Seán O'Faoláin's biography, King of the Beggars, presented a heroic narrative, lauding O'Connell as one who 'drank deep of Europe' and fathered Irish democracy. Contemporary historians might be more nuanced and critical, but O'Faoláin did highlight the dangers of reductive hindsight, noting O'Connell was 'radical only in relation to his times; never a republican ... never a social reformer ... there is no reason to blame him for that. His day is not ours.' He was, rather, 'a brutal realist, occupied with the present conditions of his country,' whose 'vision of an Irish democracy was limited by those conditions'.
Irish Times
4 days ago
- Business
- Irish Times
Some An Post current account customers hit by ‘error' with direct debit payments
An Post said it is ttempting to fix an error that is holding up direct debit payments for some of its around 90,000 current account customers. In response to questions, a spokeswoman for the State-owned postal group said it had received contact from customers about direct debit payments and was looking into the matter late on Thursday afternoon. She later said An Post Money was 'working to correct an error' that led to the 'erroneous recalling of a direct debit file' affecting some of its current account customers. 'We will continue working overnight to ensure the error is rectified by midday [on Friday],' she said. 'There is no action required by any customer.' READ MORE 'We apologise unreservedly to affected customers for this inconvenience,' the spokeswoman said. [ David McRedmond: 'An Post has been brilliant. I've never been remunerated less and enjoyed a job more' Opens in new window ] It is not clear how many customers have been impacted by the error. An Post had some 90,000 current account customers in 2024, according to its most recent annual report, but the postal service said the issue only affected those with direct debit payments scheduled for Thursday. The spokeswoman said the error affected only a 'small number' of An Post Money account holders. One customer told The Irish Times they were alerted to the issue when their mobile phone network operator did not receive a regular payment from their An Post Money current account. The money had left the account, they said, but had not been received by the vendor, and An Post was unable to tell them when the money would be returned. The customer said they were advised by An Post to pay the vendor directly instead. The spokeswoman for An Post said: 'We are not advising [and never did advise] customers to make payments directly to any vendors.' The Central Bank of Ireland, which regulates An Post Money, was approached for comment. Speaking to The Irish Times in July, An Post chief executive David McRedmond said the company 'needs to scale up' its own current account offering. However, he said its agency banking arrangements with AIB and Bank of Ireland meant that the post office was now 'the high-street bank' in many parts of rural Ireland, facilitating basic cash transactions.
The Irish Sun
5 days ago
- Business
- The Irish Sun
Major change to fees for popular service used by thousands of Irish to come into effect in weeks
It comes after a stamp price increase PRICE JUMP Major change to fees for popular service used by thousands of Irish to come into effect in weeks IRISH customers who use An Post's AddressPal service to the UK and the US are set to be hit by increased customs charges. The new charge being imposed means a €1 increase in the customs administration fee for using An Post's AddressPal service, from €4.95 to €5.95. 2 An Post has announced a price hike on customs charges Credit: Alamy It comes just weeks after An Post's latest announcement of a major increase in stamp costs. The service allows allows customers to avail of a UK and US virtual address that can be used as a postal address for the delivery of UK and US online orders. And the items are delivered directly to the registered address or to the nominated Post Office. In a statement, An Post said the new charge are due to come into effect on September 5. They added: "There was a change to the customs charge admin fee for AddressPal UK and US items. "From September 5th 2025, the customs administration fee payable will change to €5.95. "Customs charges and administration fees are payable by the receiver on items coming into Ireland from outside of the EU/EEA. "Questions about the changes For any questions relating to the changes to the AddressPal service, please contact the AddressPal team at addresspalsupport@ An Post has also reminded customers of a change to the AddressPal US Address system. They said: "Our AddressPal US Address has changed. Items sent to the old address can no longer be retrieved. "To ensure smooth delivery, please use your updated Delaware AddressPal address for all future orders." An Post AddressPal service to the UK and the US last fee change was in September 2024, when the customs administration fee was increased to €4.95 for items originating from non-EU countries, for which customs duties are paid by the recipient upon arrival in Ireland. At the time, the company stated: "We have kept the price as low as possible since 2021, but we need to increase the cost now to cover our increasing operational and administrative costs. "Please note that the vast majority of online shoppers pay all customs charges at the online checkout as part of their purchase. "The custom admin fee only applies to parcels arriving where customs has not been paid in advance or electronic data has not been shared in advance and are insufficient to comply with EU customs legislation."
