Olivia Mitchell (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Chairman for allowing me to sit in on this committee as I am not a member and for giving me the opportunity to say something. Although I am not a member of the committee and I am far from an expert on this area, I have been tracking the sequence of events that led to the choosing of Eircode for a number of years. I have spoken to many people who have concerns about it. It seems that the witnesses are saying that because we are late coming to the whole idea of a post code, we had the opportunity to make a technological leap and we are failing to do so, that basically what we are choosing is a database system that is geared mainly towards the delivery of letters, which is a dying method of communication. What the witnesses are asking for is some sort of a sequential code that is easily recognisable and that has some sort of logical pattern that can be used for their businesses.
I have watched this for a long time and it seems that perhaps a mistake was made in setting the parameters of the system that was to be chosen and that the tender documents and the whole preparation process seemed to be geared at facilitating An Post. I am not against facilitating An Post but it seems to have happened to the exclusion of everybody else. I asked a number of parliamentary questions about this and one answer stated, "In addition, the emergency services sees the introduction of post codes as facilitating the speedier deployment of their services". I am not sure how that is the case if one depends on a letter-box, since many of the emergency services go to places that do not have letter-boxes. The reply continues that An Post, which is actively involved in the design process is fully committed to using Eircode. If An Post was actually involved in the design process, it seems inevitable that we got something that suited its sorting system, and that we did not get something that had other functions and other users.
The witnesses are talking now about introducing a parallel system. As I understand it, they are saying that the Government Departments that this system suits, which send many letters, may use this system, but that it should be a private system, not publicly used, and that we should introduce some sort of parallel system. By a parallel system, they mean that the last three digits are sequenced. I follow on from Senator Barrett's questions about how much it will cost. Is there a huge cost involved in this?
An answer to another parliamentary question stated:

Concerns have been expressed by a number of logistics bodies in connection with the Eircode, most specifically in relation to the non-sequential nature of Eircode. Capita, the post code management licence-holder has met with a number of these bodies to discuss these concerns and to, inter alia, explain that a sequential post code structure is not feasible or necessary.

What is it that is different about Ireland that makes it unfeasible to have a sequential postcode structure?