The Referendum Commission said today that it was dissatisfied with An Post after it emerged that some deliveries of its information booklet had copies of a "vote yes" leaflet enclosed.
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However, Fine Gael defended the company saying the Government were to blame because they had not given An Post sufficient time to make the 1.3 million deliveries.
A spokesperson for the Commission, Ms Patricia Doyle, told ireland.comthat the Referendum Commission had made it clear to An Post that the booklets were to be "stand alone" deliveries and that nothing else should be contained in them.
Five complaints made to the Commission yesterday concerning the "vote yes" leaflet enclosed in information booklet deliveries. The complaints came from parts of Dublin, Kildare, Cork and Galway.
A spokesman for An Post, Mr John Foley, told ireland.comthat staff had put the leaflets inside the booklet to ease deliveries.
He said that when An Post delivered the euro converters to every address in the country they had five weeks in which to do it in, but, in the case of the booklets, An Post only had six working days to make 1.3 million deliveries and that is why some staff tried to ease deliveries.
Fine Gael's referendum campaign director Ms Nora Owen backed up An Post's contention that the short period of time afforded to An Post was the reason for the error. She said the Government should take the blame because they did establish the Referendum Commission in good time.
"Because of this lack of time, the people delivering the post have had to resort to bundling the referendum material together, including the Yes campaign leaflets," Ms Owen said.
She also echoed the concerns of the Commission over the possibility that some people may assume the independent body endorsed the yes vote.
Ms Doyle said: "The Referendum Commission is a neutral body and we’re concerned that the mistake would take away the impression that we are independent."
However, said that all the complainants were aware that the Commission was independent and that An Post appears to have arrested the problem.
An Post said it regretted any offence caused.