An Post is to go to tender this week on a €35 million contract for roadside letter-boxes, despite last week's ruling by the Communications Regulator that customers cannot be forced to accept the boxes and a lack of approval from the Government.
A spokesman, Mr John Foley, said the plan to replace door-step delivery with roadside letter-boxes in certain areas must go ahead if the company is to have a chance of survival. "We simply cannot afford not to do it," he said.
Despite the decision from the ComReg chairwoman, Ms Etain Doyle, that An Post would be breaking the law if it obliged customers to take the boxes, the company intends to buy up the full complement of 500,000 boxes, as listed in its original proposal to ComReg.
"Around Christmas we were seeking expressions of interest from manufacturers. There will be a bidding conference this week where the 20 companies who expressed an interest will compete for tender," Mr Foley said.
Although An Post has taken note of Ms Doyle's ruling, it does not envisage that it will be left with a surplus of boxes on its hands. "We will have to convince people that this is the way to go. It is the way of the future," Mr Foley said.
The boxes were also a key element of the An Post strategic plan submitted to Government, and the company had received no indication that the plan was not acceptable.
However, a spokesman for the Department of Communications said last night that there had been "no issue" of roadside letter-boxes in the strategic plan.
"There was never any question of roadside letter-boxes being approved.
"They have not been approved by the Minister, Mr Ahern, or the Government."
The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Mr Noel O'Flynn, accused An Post of being "very foolish with the State's money".
He criticised the company for going ahead with such a massive bulk purchases of boxes without assurances from its customers that they would be willing to accept the end of doorstep deliveries.
"What is An Post going to do with all these boxes if people don't take them? Are they going to just gather dust in a warehouse?" Mr O'Flynn asked.
He said he hoped the new chief executive of the company would "think again" on the issue, after Mr John Hynes steps down.
"It would be wise for An Post not to get into a confrontational situation with the Government on this issue. If they do they will be the losers, " he said.
A spokesman for ComReg said that, irrespective of how many boxes An Post was to buy, Ms Doyle's ruling that they could only be installed by mutual consent would stand.
Meanwhile An Post has said that even if all of the 500,000 boxes are accepted it will have to increase its prices to survive.
"We are currently operating with the same prices as in 1981. That's going to have to change no matter what, if An Post is to remain viable," Mr Foley said.
