Michael Colreavy (Sligo-North Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses and thank them for the presentation, which is very clear. We are getting a different message from them than we got from the Road Hauliers Association. I have two issues with the Eircode system. The overall issue is that I do not quite understand. I always look for simplicity and to my simple mind we are looking at a system under which one has a code that links a building or a place with the terrestrial co-ordinates and one should do it in the most efficient way possible to set up and maintain. I have some questions on the whole project, the initiation, analysis, testing, design, testing, the proof of concept, implementation, which people and companies were involved in it and at what stages they were involved, and so on, but that is not the concern of this meeting and I am looking at that separately.

Nightline and the Road Hauliers Association have a broadly similar function. Both are travelling around and going to addresses. I am sure it makes sense for both organisations that one would deliver to houses in a row of houses if one has a parcel for more than one house on a street or in a row, and yet one of the two organisations came before us and said that the bottom line is that the system is not useable. Now Mr. Tuohy is saying not only that it is useable, but that it is probably the best solution to what Nightline does. There is a conflict of views. I know Mr. Tuohy has put forward some rationale, but I am not sure I fully understand it. The first concern, therefore, is that the system is not sequential and people cannot plan routes based on it.

The second major concern that was put forward is the cost and the effort of maintaining that table of addresses.

Every time a new address is added, will it involve maintenance of a series of tables, because someplace within the system there must be a table that links to the terrestrial co-ordinates? Every time a new address is added, somebody must create the link between the code for the new address and the terrestrial code, unless it is done automatically through Google Maps or some other way. This may be an unfair question for Nightline, since it was not involved in this part of the development, but I have one further question to do with this. When the system was designed, did anybody from the design team talk to Nightline about how it operates or how it plans its routes and deliveries? Did anybody have that discussion with it or was there any testing of the concept in a live situation? If this happened, what feedback came from it? Has Nightline any information on the cost of maintaining an updated table of codes for these geographic areas?

At least one of the five emergency organisations has serious concerns regarding the usability and safety of Eircode and I intend to talk to them about those concerns. I have many other questions, but Nightline is not in a position to answer all of them. I am puzzled as to why two organisations, basically in the same business, have such different views on Eircode. One says it is of no use, while the other says it is very useful and probably the best solution.