Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. Would it be fair to say that Eircode is based on a geodirectory system, a unique identifier for every address in the country? The UK companies say the geodirectory part of it is based on a random number and that is causing them the biggest trouble. Are there not benefits in a geodirectory system that identifies an individual address over a clustered address in terms of accuracy of delivery, leaving aside the sequential aspect of it? One still has random numbers but because one has a unique identifier to an address, in addition to either a name, a business name, street name or house number, one has an individual code identifying a precise individual address for deliveries. I refer to post, including commercial deliveries or parcels delivered by courier or other method. Irrespective of the random nature of the numbering, that should be a positive development. If the numbers were not random, would it give rise to data protection issues on the basis that one could identify who lives next door and so on? Significant issues arise for the address owner. Among the people who supported a geodirectory-based code are the emergency services, for example. Given the advantages of an individual address, how does one deal with potential data protection issues? Is that the crux of the problem?