Mr. Liam O'Sullivan:

The Deputy has asked two questions which are probably more in the sphere of An Post. He has referred to the Dublin postal districts. One of the principal tenets set by the Department in selecting a code is that people should not have to change their current address. This is related to the Chairman's point about sense of and attachment to place. The Dublin postal districts are viewed by residents living in these areas as part of their current addresses. To attempt to change or remove Dublin 4 would be the equivalent of taking away the name of a town for people who live in provincial Ireland. It does no violence to people's current addresses and is carried into the code as designed.

On the investment by An Post, I noted in my opening statement that we had completely replaced our automated sorting equipment over several years up to 2012. Now that we have changed that equipment, we are able to introduce new systems - the technology changes very quickly - which are capable of dealing with postcodes. We have a small software capital investment of approximately €1 million, but we see it being repaid very quickly, given the benefits we will get from our use of the Eircode system. It is up to each company to use the code to its benefit. We see benefits in how we apply it. As an example, we are entering into the busiest time of the year for An Post, with our volumes doubling or even trebling. This is most welcome in terms of revenue, but it is also a huge logistical challenge. During the month of December we hire approximately 1,000 casual staff for our large sorting centres. Even though they are untrained and will not be carrying a natural geography of the entire country with them, we require them to sort the country's letters for delivery. When we have the Eircode system which will be in place by next Christmas, we will be asking the staff we hire in to sort letters by hand simply by matching a portion of the code. That will make our Christmas operations far more efficient than they are. We have made a capital investment, but we see significant benefit for us.