Residents in North Tyrone are astonished that mail posted from Lifford to Strabane is travelling via Athlone, Dublin and Belfast before it reaches its destination.
The situation was brought to the attention of Sinn Féin MLA Barry McElduff when a teenage girl who moved from Strabane along with her family to live just across the border received her A-level results a week after her class mates.
"One could stand on the bridge between Strabane and Lifford and throw a paper plane across," said Mr McElduff. "It is a ridiculous situation. I have dealt with many people who have moved just inside the border with either Co Tyrone or Co Donegal who are mystified about the journey a letter has to take."
The West Tyrone MLA has written to North-South Ministerial Secretariat demanding the issue of postal services be on the agenda at their next meeting.
He added, "Postal services need to be harmonised on a national All Ireland basis.
"That requires An Post and Royal Mail working closer together. The key issue is the huge inconvenience for the customer who lives in a border community.
"It highlights the contradictions and anomalies of the border and citizens who live in border communities constantly face obstacles to services which also include education and health.
"Regarding postal services there are all sorts of important letters were this causes major inconvenience. Believe or not it some of these letters are labelled 'Par Avion' ('by Airplane') which in their context means 'International.'
"The North-South Ministerial Council (NSMC) did a report in 2001 called 'Obstacles to Cross-Border Mobility.' I am calling on them to do an updated version of that in 2007 regarding removing these obstacles."
While walking over the border may be the solution to the dilemma and also be good for one's health Mr McElduff pointed out that not everyone is physically able to do walk this distance. He concluded, "While exercise is to be encouraged the reality is this detour through Dublin is a major inconvenience to cross border post."
