New Year To Ring Changes for Overseas Mail Tariffs

5 December 2003

Despite increases on some tariffs, Ireland’s international mail prices will continue to be among the lowest in Europe.

An Post said the new rates would help to address losses currently being incurred on services to the UK and to some European counties.

“We have revised the international mail rates as part of an overall rebalancing and simplification of tariff structures and because of the necessity to keep pace with increased costs and increased payments to international postal operators,” a spokesperson said.

“We have taken the opportunity to broaden the weight bands and simplify the price structure whilst continuing to ensure that our customers can avail of highly competitive rates for international mail” she added.

For example, the price of posting a 25g priority (airmail) letter from Ireland to another European country will increase from 57c to 65c. Equivalent rates across Europe for this service include 76c in the UK, €1.00 in Germany and €1.16 in The Netherlands and Spain. (See attached tables for comparison).

For Priority letters to Europe and the Rest of the World, the 0-25g and 25-50g weight steps will be amalgamated, simplifying the tariff structure and bringing it in line with those for domestic and Great Britain mail. Within the new weight step, the price for a 0-25g letter will increase from 57c to 65c while it will decrease from 83c to 65c for 25-50g letters, a reduction of 22 per cent.

Under the new schedule of charges the cost of priority (airmail) post for a 50g letter to the UK will rise by 10c to 60c. The new rates are an important part of an overall An Post plan to eliminate losses currently being incurred on services to the UK, the top destination for outbound international mail from Ireland.

Non-priority UK-bound items, weighing up to 50g, will increase in price from 41c to 50c. The rate for similar items to Europe and the Rest of the World will rise from 44c to 55c but will come down (from 71c) for 25g items.

The new schedule of charges will take effect as the outbound international postal market is fully liberalised under EU legislation. Increases to a range of other services open to full competition are also being applied from January 5. These will affect Swiftpost, Publicity Post and Publication mail services for which rates have fallen behind the market rate.

/end

Notes:

• ‘Priority’ International mail is transported by air from Ireland.
• International ‘Non-Priority’ or ‘Surface’ mail is transported by container ship and road/rail.