An Post's Chief Executive has told the Communications Minister that cost cutting and staff reductions before Christmas were to blame for the late delivery of over 1m Christmas cards.
At a meeting in Dublin, John Hynes told Dermot Ahern that the backlog was now being cleared and that procedures were in place at sorting offices to ensure it did not happen again.
An Post had previously said that the problem arose due to new sorting machines which came into use six weeks before Christmas.
Mr Ahern said John Hynes freely admitted that a change to centralise the sorting service was implemented in December. He said he had been assured this would not happen again.
According to An Post, the backlog has now been cleared with over a million missing Christmas cards delivered to homes and businesses around the country over the last two days.
The delay affected cards posted at the Dublin Mail Centre, which handles two thirds of the country's post.
Many Christmas cards had to be sorted by hand. The company also blamed late posting for the delay.
