Track Your Packages Across Ireland in One Place

Ireland applies the EU import rules in full, and they show up in your tracking as the customs pause — whoever's carrying your package. Every purchase from outside the EU owes Irish VAT — 23% — from the first cent, and since 1 July 2026 low-value e-commerce packages also carry the EU's flat €3 duty per item, which replaced the old €150 duty-free allowance. When the shop collected VAT at checkout through IOSS (the big platforms do), your package clears with barely a blip, whether An Post, DPD or DHL brings it to your door. When it didn't, the timeline pauses while Revenue assesses the charges, and the payment request comes from whichever carrier is handling the clearance — An Post by postcard, SMS or email, the express couriers like DHL, UPS and FedEx through their own emails and payment links — each adding its own handling fee. Pay promptly and delivery resumes within days. The practical rule: a VAT line at checkout means a smooth timeline; no VAT line means budget for the bill and the wait.

The Eircode solved a very Irish problem: tens of thousands of homes share a townland name with their neighbours, and "the blue house past the church" was never a great routing instruction. Your seven-character Eircode identifies your exact property — not your street, your building — so couriers' navigation takes drivers to the right door instead of the right general area, whether that driver works for An Post, DPD, Fastway or Amazon. Always include it at checkout, especially with international shops whose address forms weren't built for rural Ireland; if a form has no Eircode field, add it to the address line itself. It matters most for non-Dublin addresses and for couriers whose drivers don't know the area. Forgotten yours? Finder.eircode.ie looks it up in seconds. An order with an Eircode simply fails less — fewer "address not found" scans, fewer packages waiting at depots for clarification.

Everyone delivering to Irish doorsteps. An Post carries the postal backbone and a huge share of online orders, Fastway (now part of the DPD family) and DPD Ireland move much of the e-commerce flow, GLS covers many European webshops, and the international names — DHL, UPS, FedEx — fly the express and cross-border orders in. Your Amazon order crossing from the UK, your Zara delivery and an AliExpress package clearing customs in Dublin all sit in one timeline here. We track more than 1,000 carriers worldwide and recognise each number's format automatically, so it never matters which courier the shop happened to pick. And when a package coming from abroad gets handed on An Post or a local courier for the final leg — the standard pattern — we follow it straight through the handover.

The notice tells you exactly where your package went, and each carrier has its own fallback — usually close by. An Post deliveries wait at your local post office: bring the docket (or the digital notice) and photo ID, and collection takes a minute. DPD and Fastway typically reroute to a nearby pickup shop or depot, named in the tracking and their apps, with redelivery options if the counter trip doesn't suit. GLS sends packages to its parcel shops, DHL to a service point, and UPS holds at an Access Point — in every case the tracking names the exact spot. Amazon's own drivers usually just retry the next day. The deadline is the thing to respect across all of them: pickup locations hold packages for a limited window before starting the return to sender, and the date on your notice is the one that counts. Your timeline here shows the attempted-delivery scan, so you'll know to look for the docket even if it went missing.

Often, yes — and each carrier gives you its own controls. An Post lets you set delivery preferences through your An Post account and app: nominate a neighbour, choose a safe place, or redirect an incoming package to a post office — and eligible packages can be steered while they're already on the way. DPD Ireland's app offers safe-place instructions, neighbour delivery and pickup-shop diversion once the package is in its network, and Fastway rides the same DPD infrastructure. GLS and DHL offer similar changes through the links in their delivery emails, and UPS through its My Choice service. The honest caveats everywhere: what you can change depends on what the sender allowed, signature-required items usually can't go to a safe place, and international packages become steerable only after they've cleared customs and entered the domestic network. The first Irish domestic scan on your timeline here tells you exactly which carrier has the package — open that app before delivery day, not after.

Run the Irish checklist before worrying — it solves most cases by teatime. Read the delivery detail on the scan: it often names a neighbour, a safe place or a porch, and DPD, Fastway and Amazon usually attach a photo of exactly where the package landed — An Post's app increasingly does the same. Check with the household, the neighbours on either side, and any sheltered spot a driver might trust — behind the pillar, in the turf shed, the usual suspects. Scans sometimes land a few minutes before the van does, so give it until evening. Still nothing next day? Report it to the carrier with your tracking number so they can pull the delivery data — GPS coordinates of the scan included — then tell the seller: under EU consumer rules the seller is responsible for the order reaching you, so they're the ones who refund, replace or claim. Your timeline here gives the exact scan time to quote in both conversations.

Every customs notification carries a "pay by" date, and that date decides everything — though how it reaches you depends on the carrier. An Post sends a postcard plus SMS and email with a customs reference you pay online or at any post office; DHL, UPS and FedEx email a payment link and typically hold packages at their Dublin facilities while they wait. Pay before the deadline and delivery resumes within days. Miss it and the package starts its journey back to the sender — the expensive outcome, because international returns take weeks and your refund then depends on the shop rather than on you holding the goods. Hold windows differ by carrier, so the date on your own notice is the only one that counts. Two cautions from experience: check your spam folder when your tracking shows a customs hold, because the emails go astray; and pay only through the carrier's own site, typed into your browser yourself — fake customs-fee texts are Ireland's favourite phishing flavour.

Yes. Since Brexit, goods from Great Britain are treated as coming from outside the EU, so Irish VAT applies whatever the value. Since 1 July 2026, parcels worth €150 or less also carry a €3 customs duty for each type of item. If the shop collects Irish VAT at checkout through IOSS, the parcel should clear without a second bill. If it doesn't, An Post or the courier collects the VAT and any duty, usually with a handling fee, before delivery. Check the checkout for an Irish VAT line before you buy from a UK shop.

Not usually. Under the EU–UK trade deal, goods that count as made in the UK pay no customs duty when they come into Ireland, though VAT still applies. The catch is where the goods were made, not where the shop is. A UK shop selling items made in China or the US can't use the deal for them, so customs duty may be due on higher-value orders, on top of VAT. If the order is expensive, it's worth checking where the items were made before you buy.

No. Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland stays in the EU single market for goods, so there are no customs declarations or tariffs on goods moving between Northern Ireland and Ireland. An order shipped from a Northern Ireland shop or warehouse should arrive like any domestic parcel, with no customs pause in your tracking. That's different from Great Britain: a shop based in England, Scotland or Wales is outside the EU for customs, even if its parcels travel through Belfast. Check where an order ships from, not just where the shop is based.

Not if it's small. A gift from one private person outside the EU to another in Ireland is free of VAT and duty if it's occasional, nothing was paid for it, and it's worth €45 or less, not counting postage and insurance. Above €45, VAT is charged on the whole value of the parcel. Alcohol, tobacco and perfume don't get the full relief, even as gifts. Ask the sender to mark the parcel clearly as a gift on the customs form, with an honest description and value.

Because there's no low-value relief for alcohol and tobacco. When they come from outside the EU, excise duty and VAT are charged whatever the value, even on a small gift or a single bottle. Perfume doesn't carry excise duty, but it's left out of the gift relief, so VAT can still apply. The carrier collects whatever is owed before it delivers. If you're buying these from outside the EU, add the duty and VAT to the price when you compare it with an Irish shop.

Because VAT is worked out on more than the price of the goods. Revenue charges import VAT on the customs value, which is the goods plus postage and insurance, plus any customs duty, including the EU's €3 per item type on low-value parcels since July 2026. From 1 November 2026, an EU handling fee of €2 per item type is added to non-EU online orders too. On top of that, the carrier usually adds its own clearance fee. Your order confirmation and shipping costs are your best check that the bill adds up.

For letters, An Post aims for next working day delivery with Standard Post, and Express Post is delivered by close of business the next working day. Parcels can take a little longer, especially at busy times. Couriers like DPD, GLS and Fastway set their own timeframes. When something has to arrive quickly, Express Post is the faster An Post choice, and the service name usually shows in your tracking.

Yes. Sign the “sorry we missed you” notice to name them as your agent, and they bring that notice plus their own ID. An Post holds items at the post office for a limited time: five working days for Standard and Express Post, three for Registered Post, and 16 for items from abroad. After that, they're returned to the sender. If you can't collect in time, ask the post office or An Post about redelivery before the deadline passes, and check your tracking for the exact branch.

Early in December. An Post publishes its Christmas last posting dates each year. In 2025, standard parcels within Ireland, to Northern Ireland and to Great Britain had to be posted by 16 December, and earlier still for the rest of Europe and further afield. The dates can change from year to year, so check An Post's list each November. If you're ordering, the Black Friday sales and the weeks before Christmas are the busiest time for every carrier, so allow a few extra days.

From shops in the EU, you generally have 14 days from delivery to cancel an online purchase without giving a reason, then another 14 days to send it back. The shop must refund you, including the standard delivery cost, within 14 days of your cancellation, but it can wait until it has the goods back. Some items are excluded, such as personalised or perishable goods. Shops outside the EU, including UK ones, set their own returns rules, so check them before you buy. Keep the tracking number of your return until the refund lands.

Use the number on your An Post receipt or the label from the courier you booked, and paste it here. You'll see the parcel leave Ireland, then customs and a local carrier in the destination country, which may give it a new number. We follow that hand-off, so the person you're sending to can track the same number. For countries outside the EU, fill in the customs declaration fully, with a clear description and value. An unclear description can hold the parcel up at customs on arrival.

It depends on where in the UK it's going. For Great Britain, which means England, Scotland and Wales, yes: goods need a customs declaration, because Great Britain is outside the EU customs area. The person you're sending to may also have UK VAT or fees to pay on arrival. For Northern Ireland, no customs form is needed for goods, because it follows EU single-market rules for goods. Either way, a clear description of the contents and their value helps the parcel move without delays.

Because sorting can take time at busy periods. An Post says items going through its parcel hub can take up to five working days to process, and volumes peak around Black Friday, Christmas and big online sales. Parcels from outside the EU can also wait there while customs charges are worked out. A hub scan that doesn't change for a couple of days is usually a queue, not a lost parcel. If it's been longer than five working days with no new scan, contact An Post with your tracking number.

It might. Two EU charges now hit cheap non-EU orders: a €3 duty per item type, in place since July 2026, plus a €2 handling fee per item type since 1 November, with 23% VAT calculated on top. Marketplaces registered for IOSS normally add these to the checkout total. Where a shop doesn't, the amount is collected by An Post or whichever courier delivers, plus a handling charge, before the parcel reaches you. Look for an import line in your basket before paying.

Expect gaps. St Stephen's Day is a Saturday this year and Christmas Day the Friday before, so expect a long break in deliveries from 25 December to the following Monday. 1 January 2027 is another Friday holiday. An Post and the couriers publish their own holiday schedules in December, and many post offices open shorter hours. Parcels already in the network simply wait at the depot, which is why tracking can stand still for several days around those dates.

Start with the person who bought it, or with the shop's gift returns policy. Under EU rules, the 14-day right to cancel belongs to the buyer, so a recipient can't usually use it on their own, and the refund goes back to the original payment. Many Irish and EU shops accept gift returns for an exchange or credit note, especially with a gift receipt, and some extend the deadline into January. If you post it back, ask for proof of postage and keep it until it's sorted.

Possibly, as the UK is outside the EU now. A genuine gift from you to them is free of UK import VAT up to £39, and above that VAT is due, with duty possible on gifts over £135. Royal Mail usually collects it, with its handling fee, before delivering. On the CN22 or CN23 form, tick “gift”, list each item clearly and state what it's really worth. Goods you order from a shop and send on count as purchases, not gifts.