Mr. John Tuohy:

Yes, at the moment they refer to postal sorting areas and there are 139 of them. There are only 124 of those covering all of the United Kingdom, including Northern Ireland, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Therefore, 139 is enough for Ireland.

The great benefit of this system lies in the flexibility designed into it to add more of those if we want more granularity or more subdivisions. If we want more, we can increase the number without having to redesign the entire system. In terms of sequencing, within those areas, once we have modern technology available - as all businesses have now, even it is down to using a tool such as Google Maps - sequencing and routing is possible. Therefore, I do not accept the argument against that.