An Post has today apologised to a Labour candidate after his election leaflets were dropped through letterboxes stapled to voters' polling cards.
Nicky Kelly, a candidate in the five seat Wicklow constituency, said he sent out 11,000 election letters to householders seeking support for his campaign as polling day draws closer.
When residents complained the Labour document was arriving stapled to their polling cards, An Post discovered it was the work of a postman trying to speed-up his deliveries. An Post has now apologised to its customers and Mr Kelly.
"Yes I've had complaints. We've been getting the blame for this," Mr Kelly said. "People have been saying that this makes it look like we're claiming to have the advantage \[over other parties].
"Our whole campaign has been undermined by An Post and this is up to the management to find out what happened." An Post said today the incident happened after a postman on one of the area's routes stapled the polling cards to the envelopes to save time.
"On behalf of An Post, I apologise unreservedly to Cllr Nicky Kelly and to the customers affected," said regional manager John Brady. "A full investigation is being carried out into the incident. This should not have happened and we have taken steps to ensure that it does not happen again.
"An Post has delivered more than 21 million items of election mail over the past three weeks. Almost one million items have been delivered in County Wicklow."
Mr Kelly said he was angered as over €6,000 of campaign funds was spent in distributing the 11,000 letters to householders. He said he was now seeking an apology from An Post to be printed in both the local and national media or else he would consider legal action.
PA