An Post is increasing the price of both national and international stamps from Tuesday, 3 February.
The price of a national stamp will increase by 20 cent from €1.65 to €1.85 and follows a 25c rise last February.
A new rate of €3.50 will apply for letters to anywhere in Europe, including Britain. This is an increase of 85 cent.
An Post said this hike is in line with global trends and below the European Union and UK benchmark of €2.04 for domestic next-day letter service.
Meanwhile, An Post said a new Rest of World stamp priced at €3.95 is needed to stem significant losses on this category of outgoing mail due to a 38% fall in international letters over the last three years.
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An Post said the increases will safeguard national delivery services and equal access to letter services nationwide despite more European postal companies stepping back letter services due to falling volumes and rising costs.
It noted that over 50% of outgoing international mail is destined for Britain, Germany and France which is why it has introduced this new Europe and Britain €3.50 rate, rather than apply the higher Rest of World rate to this category. In the UK, the equivalent European stamp costs €3.90.
An Post said that rates for large envelopes, packets, over-the-counter parcels and Registered Post will also rise, as will rates for the innovative national and international Digital stamps.
In a statement, An Post said the price increases are carefully calculated to cover the cost of providing a "world class" national letter service to every address, taking account of wage increases for postal staff in line with national pay awards, and increased operating costs and letter volumes which have declined by 7% in the last 12 months and more than 50% since 2016.
A similar rate of decline is forecast for 2026.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the increase in the price of a stamp is "very challenging for people".
Speaking in Cork he said: "There's reduction in usage and so on.
"It's leading to higher costs. It's a difficulty. It's a challenge in terms of that area, and it's very challenging for people, that I acknowledge."
Mr Martin said the world "is changing in respect of postal services".
Managing Director of An Post Mails & Parcels Garrett Bridgeman said An Post's priority is to support the Irish economy and communities by providing world-class services for the people and businesses countrywide.
"We work hard on the economics of the business by introducing smarter work practices and managing costs to achieve fair, cost-reflective prices below the European benchmark average, and below the UK, despite falling volumes due to e-substitution," he said.
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"Increasingly, European countries have reduced letter delivery frequency to once or twice a week and now deliver to mail boxes outside the home or to central collection points. While An Post continues to design future generation mail services to suit customers' needs, the company is committed to retaining the option of a next-day national service to the door, by trusted, trained postal staff in a growing fleet of emission free vehicles", he added.
He also said that An Post staff will continue to check in on customers, particularly those living alone in isolated rural areas, during spells of bad weather.
The free delivery service for all letter and parcels up to 1kg posted to residents of nursing and care homes in the State will be continued.
An Post also said that all existing stamps with 'N' (National) and 'W' (Worldwide) or specific euro denominations remain valid and fully useable after 3 February.
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland, Mr Bridgeman said that while mail volumes have declined, An Post has a "fixed cost network".
"So whether your post man or woman has to deliver three letters to your house, or two or one, they still need to travel the route, so we have a very high fixed cost network," he said.
"Yearly our mail volumes decline by about 7-8%. This increases the unit cost of letters and that's the main reason for the increase in the cost for us and why we have to put the price up," he said.
Mr Bridgeman said post is still "incredibly important" to Irish people and An Post reviews its pricing every year.
"Since Covid, international logistics is just really, really expensive and this has been exacerbated by recent global events," he said.
"We've tried to keep the price on this down as much as we can but we can't continue to make significant losses in this traffic," he added.
