Mr. Gary Delaney:

The danger is that in haste - after 12 or 13 years it is not so much a question of haste, but there seems to be an impetus now to get this over the line as quickly as possible - we implement something that cannot be changed. Senator Barrett mentioned Nightline. When the Nightline representative presented here, he made a strong point about his concerns about implementation and also mentioned the idea of a pilot. Every country in the world implementing a postcode system - Uganda, Tanzania, the United Arab Emirates and so on - will do a pilot test first to ensure it has value. John Tuohy of Nightline said that should happen. No pilot is planned, so that is very worrying. He also said in a separate interview that if it does not work out he can tweak it. Tweaking a postcode is like tweaking the Luas red and green lines, with huge cost and inconvenience to many people afterwards, and will only result in Eircode not being used for any purpose.

There is a danger that we just accept this because it has got so far. There is a history of documentation, and there are many statements.

At the end of the day one must look at Eircode. We have very little information on it, but we can all look at an eircode and see that one gets no information from it. I have provided a reference in annex A of my document. It is of no use to anybody, including a postman.