Around 300,000 undelivered letters and parcels have been sitting in An Post depots in Dublin and Athlone since last year, it has emerged. Some of the items have been in storage for 12 months. Conor Lally reports.
The majority are not marked with the senders' name and address. They will have to be opened by hand in an effort to ascertain where they should be returned or forwarded.
Last night An Post warned that clearing the massive backlog will be "difficult and time-consuming". A spokesman described the process as "dirty work".
The backlog occurred when the Return Letter Branch of An Post's Dublin Mail Centre was relocated to depots in Killarney and Roscommon last year. The centres were unable to immediately handle the workload from Dublin and backlogs of mail immediately began to build up.
The company described the build-up as an "old backlog". The bulk of the mail was sent between June and October last year. After October, the Killarney and Roscommon offices began operating more efficiently, resulting in mail entering the system being handled as quickly as it had been before.
"Unlike other countries, our practice of not using a return address contributes significantly to the ongoing problem," a statement issued by An Post last night said.
"All identifiable time-sensitive items continue to be processed. We estimate that there is a backlog of approximately 300,000 items without an obvious return address. An Post will be processing these items as quickly as possible."
A spokesman added some workers had been sifting through the mail by hand in an effort to pick out items which appeared urgent. Because of this, Swiftpost and registered mail has not been affected, he said.
Most of the undelivered mail is being stored in a container at An Post's depot on the Naas Road, Dublin. A smaller quantity is being stored at one of the company's facilities in Athlone.
Last night An Post said the bulk of the mail had not been delivered to its intended destination because of inadequate or incorrect addressing. It handles an estimated 4 million such items every year.
In an effort to reduce the workload caused by post not marked with return addresses, in September An Post is to launch a major publicity campaign to persuade business and domestic customers to put a return-to-sender address on the back of letters and parcels. In the meantime the company said it was committed to doing everything it can to get the 300,000 items back to their senders or forwarded to their intended recipients.