Mr. Mark Griffin:

No, I do not, but I am giving a view on it. We will find out what the cost was for the NAS specifically for the integration of Eircode. The point I wish to make is that we would expect to see public sector bodies integrate Eircode into their operations as part of the normal business and upgrade cycle that they have in place for their systems, and that is what we are seeing happen in the other bodies that are engaged in upgrades across the public sector at the moment.

While the National Ambulance Service would not necessarily have been consulted as part of the consultation processes that occurred as the design of the postcode system evolved between 2006 and 2013, when a contract was awarded, there were extensive consultations with both the HSE and the Department of Health at various stages, including on the design of Eircode or the postcode itself. While the view in 2006, as referred to by Mr. McCarthy, was that we should land on a non-unique postal address-type block-face postcode, certainly the view that emerged in discussion in the later stages with the HSE, the Department of Health and a range of bodies in the public and private sectors was that a unique postcode was the type of postcode that should be put in place. To use the National Ambulance Service as an example, if one used the postal sector model, which might identify anything between ten and 50 addresses as part of a block, it would be absolutely useless in rural Ireland, where 35% of the addresses are non-unique. We will come back to the committee on that specific point.