Royal Mail has refused to adopt an all-island tariff as requested by SDLP MLA Declan O’Loan. This would have meant that mail to any address in Ireland could have been covered by a first-class stamp. Declan O’Loan said that he was disappointed not just by this outcome, but by the bureaucratic approach of Royal Mail in London to the issue.
He said “Despite telling me that a uniform tariff across the island is technically feasible, Royal Mail then went on to find lots of reasons why they would not do it.
“They even suggested that there might be opposition to this proposal from the Republic of Ireland, which I find absurd.
Several points come to mind here:
1. Has he actually examined the EU regulatory problems quoted by Royal Mail?
2. Has he consulted with the Republic's postal service before deigning to speak on their behalf?
3. What exactly are the pricing implications, e.g. would I be expected to pay more for a letter travelling to say Ballymena than present, simply to bring it in line with the costs of of sending the same letter to Kerry?
4. Has he considered an all-islands tariff, ie one covering all the UK and the ROI; if not, why not? It makes as much, if not more, economic sense as an "all-island" one- I'm going to make a guess here that the amount of post leaving both Northern Ireland and the Republic heading eastwards towards the British mainland greatly outweighs that crossing the Irish border, hence any theoretical saving to both businesses and the public in general from uniform tariffs would be that much greater. Perhaps not so politically acceptable to "Ack sure" economists though?
I don't expect we'll hear much more about this latest whizz; but,really, to be taken a bit more seriously, "all-Ireland" "economists" such as Mr O'Loan need to be delivering the full data and background behind such suggestions, rather than just soundbites- the vast majority of the public either side of the border simply won't be happy subsidising their "all-island" wetdreams on trust.
3 comments:
A first class stamp in ROI costs 49p. International mail from the UK costs 50p. So Declan wants us all to pay international rates to tally with his own narrow political agenda essentially.
This is probably an attempt to extend the principle of the fact that the ROI has always charged phone calls to NI as a domestic call (this obviously is not observed vice-versa) and the ROI government pays any international charges.
It is something the EU will have to consider in the long run, that is the integration of the postal and telecommunications networks, particularly with the virtual abolition of customs controls on goods between EU states. Cheaper postage and telephone calls for all?
Skype (and the continuing EU regulation on mobile charges) will deliver a standard "as near to zero as makes no difference" telephone calls within the next couple of years.
A standard postage charge across the EU makes more sense than localised, scattered agreements. Try selling it though if it involved higher charges....
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