Mr. Paul Allen:

The Deputy asked about the benefits for business. As the stakeholder manager for the team, I have met 900 representatives of approximately 600 or 700 companies. Predominantly, the feedback is that there is major support for the introduction of postcodes and the Eircode system. The benefits include not just deliveries but capturing addresses accurately, knowing exactly where an address is and being able to remove duplicates from databases. Members have seen the examples of the many forms an address can take. People can leverage these variants in addresses to perpetrate fraud on companies that deliver or supply services or products. This will give companies the ability to recognise that different variations correspond to one address. I have met organisations covering everything from financial services to utilities, small firms, charities, the retail sector, software, transport and logistics companies and they are interested in seeing how this system can benefit them. There is very good support for the use of postcodes.