An Post has apologised to customers for postage delays over the Christmas period.
“With such huge volumes even a tiny percentage of late items will affect a significant number of customers and for this we apologise,” a spokeswoman said.
Over the 2025 Christmas period, An Post handled upwards of three million parcels and three million Christmas cards each week, with even more cards in the days before Christmas.
An Post also reported that parcel volumes were up more than 35 per cent over the festive period compared with the same time in 2024.
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“Apart from the items posted or received into An Post from abroad after the advertised latest posting dates, and those Christmas parcels and letters still arriving from abroad, a small number of items were delayed.”
The postage service said it did everything “humanly and technologically possible” to deliver to all customers.
“We moved straight from Christmas shopping to sales shopping, and national and international parcel volumes remain very high,” said an An Post spokeswoman.
The postal service said it is aware of items dispatched from Ireland in mid-December that are only now being delivered in their destination countries, including parts of Australia and the US.
It also said that Christmas mail continues to arrive from various parts of the world, such as the US.
At the end of October, Fastway Couriers’ parent company Nuvion Group entered receivership, leaving staff, contract drivers and customers stranded.
An Post said “conscious of the impact of Fastway’s sudden closure ... at An Post we did everything possible to provide services to customers”.
“That said, we made it clear that we wouldn’t be able to take on all the former carrier’s contracts, simply due to capacity.”
The postal service also said it was “hit hard” by absences due to illness in the post-Christmas and early January period, which in some areas affected a small number of delivery routes and arrangements were made to cover as many routes as possible each day. Since then, most staff members have returned to work following illnesses.
Several Irish Times readers expressed their dismay at the delays in postage over the Christmas period through letters to the editor.
One reader, who still has Christmas cards arriving, said “inordinate delay in delivery of Christmas cards took the joy out of the cards this season. Each year, I would string my received cards along my entrance hall wall. Delighted to be able to display my wide range of contacts. Not this year, unfortunately.”
A Dublin reader said only last week, they received a Christmas card from Co Meath that had been posted on December 22nd.
Another said they received a Christmas card from Canada this week.
