O'Donovan says he wasn't behind An Post leak, Cabinet details were 'conflated'
Vivienne Clarke
Minister for Communications Patrick O’Donovan has said it was unacceptable that details about An Post were revealed at a Cabinet meeting and that ongoing issues with restructuring were “conflated” with concerns raised by postmasters.
“Some people who don't understand have conflated the two things, put them together, added two and two and came up with seven,” he told RTÉ radio’s Today with Claire Byrne show.
Mr O’Donovan said that the person who claimed that An Post was going to need a bailout should have put their name “in the paper” and denied the claim that he had been behind the leak which An Post chief executive David McRedmond called "garbage".
As a shareholder of An Post he said that the company had returned a profit last year. “They've had some challenging years, there's no doubt about that, they have gone through a restructuring programme and actually one of the things that has been conflated as well in some of the media reports, which isn't helpful either, and I think David McRedmond set the record straight, is people are conflating An Post with the independent postmasters and are conflating the two things in the budgetary talks. And to be quite honest about it, it's showing, particularly from some politicians, a lack of understanding of what An Post is.”
When asked about the report about the Cabinet meeting which claimed that An Post was facing a bleak financial future, the Minister replied: “It's not today or yesterday that I have been on with you clarifying the morning after, the night before, and what I've said as the shareholder of the company is I am very satisfied that An Post's future is linked inextricably to communities up and down the country.
“These are nameless people again and it's not the first time I've been talking to you about a nameless person. I'm Patrick O'Donovan, Minister for Culture, Communications and Sport, I'm the shareholder of RTÉ and I'm shareholder of An Post.
“This Government is a firm supporter of An Post, we've shown that, both in terms of the post masters and their connection to the company, but as well as that in terms of the changes that have been brought in by the current CEO and the current board to make the company as viable and as profitable as it is.
“All postal services around the European Union have been challenged since Covid. Next Day Delivery Services have been challenging for all postal services but An Post has done something that most of its opponents around the European Union are looking on with green eyes saying how did you manage to do this big, they're becoming one of the leaders in Ireland in terms of parcel delivery and that's where their future is.
“The CEO has done an excellent job notwithstanding the financial difficulties and he did say it this morning, and we are meeting him very regularly, that he wants to work with the government in the new year around working capital. That's what a CEO does, but how a nameless minister, or alleged nameless Minister, or source or whatever, would conflate that into saying that the situation is dire. I don't know how they will come up with that.
“This is a company that has come through massive transformative change and which my department is fully supportive of with New Era and with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform in terms of addressing some of the issues that the CEO referred to this morning on Morning Ireland.
“As the shareholder of the company I have the confidence of the board and the management and the men and women that work for An Post. An Post is in a very good state and has transformed itself over the last number of years and it's going to continue in that journey of transformation and it will have the full support of the government.”
