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Concerns have been raised over postal delivery services in rural parts of County Armagh, with some residents reportedly waiting two to three weeks between deliveries, leading to missed medical appointments and late bill payments.
Dáire Hughes MP said constituents had been in contact explaining they had not been receiving a reliable postal service in recent weeks.
The MP warned that the sporadic arrival of post could also result in bills being delivered late, potentially heaping financial pressure on people in the midst of the cost of living crisis.
Hughes said he had written directly to Royal Mail outlining these concerns and had asked them to urgently review their processes to make sure people living in rural areas received the same standard of service as everyone else. He stressed that rural citizens were, in many cases, more dependent on reliable post delivery and expected and were fully entitled to the highest standard of service.
The MP was keen to stress the issues were not the fault of local staff. He said he knew that Royal Mail staff across Newry and Armagh worked hard to provide a first class service and that local post and sorting offices were extremely busy, especially now in the run up to Christmas. "Our local Royal Mail employees will be braving the elements in the weeks ahead to make sure post and parcels are delivered in good time and I want to commend and thank them for their efforts. I know the issues people are facing are not due to local staff. They appear to be procedural issues with Royal Mail." the Newry and Armagh MP said.
Mr Hughes has called on Royal Mail to urgently address what he described as procedural failures affecting rural communities, insisting residents were entitled to the same standard of delivery service as those in more urban areas.
