The Commission for Communications Regulation (ComReg) today published the results of its third independent annual report on the Quality of Service performance of An Post.

The report shows that:

• 73% of single piece priority mail – i.e. standard correspondence - was delivered within one working day throughout the State against a target of 94%. This represents only a 1% increase over performance in 2004. However, Quarter 4 2005 performance reported only a 63% success rate nationally, a 4% decline over the corresponding period in 2004.

• Overall for 2005, mail posted outside of Dublin for next day delivery in Dublin only experienced a 68% success rate while mail posted outside of Dublin for local delivery recorded a success rate of 76%. Specifically regarding Quarter 4 2005, mail posted outside of Dublin for delivery in Dublin fell to just 57% next day delivery while mail posted locally in Dublin for the same period achieved a 70% success rate.

• Overall for 2005, 97% of all mail was delivered within 3 working days. This reflects a 1% improvement over the previous two years of measurement but falls short of the 99.5% target set by ComReg. Mail posted outside of Dublin to Dublin was the poorest performing route after three days of posting.

ComReg is the sole organisation statutorily required to set and publish quality of service standards in relation to the universal service. The survey, which was conducted by TNS mrbi, is based on the statistical methods set out by CEN, the European Standards Institute and is mandated by the European Commission.

In accordance with the Standard, bulk mail, which frequently receives a lower delivery standard in return for price discounts, is not included. The annual survey for 2005, which incorporates geographical sampling, is based on sample size of almost 22,000 observations.