An Post says Christmas was its busiest ever period for delivering parcels.

It delivered more than 1.7 million parcels in the five week lead-up to Christmas.

It says parcel volumes from Amazon were up over 30 percent on the previous year.

Others featuring heavily included Irish brands like Arnotts, Brown Thomas and Smyths Toys.

General mail volumes were down by over 6 percent - but the company says this is in line with global trends.

Garrett Bridgeman, managing director of An Post Mails and Parcels, says: "We saw the growth in Christmas parcel traffic early in play.

"We were conscious that this would be an important period for us given the re-launch and re-focus of our parcels business."