Mr. Neil McDonnell:

Not at all. A unique identifier presents data protection issues that do not arise with a less granular structure. We do not believe there are fundamental data protection issues with a unique identifier. In the previous Dáil, a similar committee dealt with the issue robustly. Eircode is an An Post geodirectory solution. The geodirectory has been bought out as part of the process by Capita plc, a UK company which is buying the database from An Post. Effectively, all that is happening is that a unique, random seven character string is being added to postal and business addresses in the geodirectory. That is the nub of the issue. If the geodirectory was a good solution for getting parcels, freight or energy to one’s premises, the delivery companies would be using it now. Although geodirectory gives a longitude and latitude, that is insufficient data to route because if we go back to simple maths, a longitude and latitude gives a point and what these people want to buy are lines.

I hope that makes sense. They need to join the dots. A random selection of dots around the country is no good to them from a routing point of view. This is a GeoDirectory mark 2 solution and the GeoDirectory has been with us for decades. It is not a solution now and therefore it will not be a solution if it is presented as a random post code.