Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. Privacy and data protection issues have been part of the debate on the postcode system, now branded as Eircode, since the establishment of a national postcodes board in 2005 to examine the introduction of postcodes in Ireland. There has been engagement by my Department with the Office of the Attorney General and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner on Eircode generally at various points since then. This has been under discussion for ten years, since 2005.

The main challenge in designing Eircode was to find a design that addressed the fact that 35% of addresses in Ireland were non-unique. An area-based code would not have addressed this problem and would have resulted in a sub-optimal solution.

The Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has expressed concerns in the past about data protection aspects of the design of Eircode. The design of the code and the concerns that have been expressed have been accorded high priority in the project implementation in order that any privacy issues are comprehensively managed. Holders of personal data are bound by data protection legislation on how they store and use this data, and the introduction of Eircode will not alter this obligation. In addition, the contract with Capita, the Eircode management licence holder, contains a range of safeguards on data protection. Furthermore, commercial organisations selling products based on Eircode will also be subject to stringent data protection requirements.

To ensure that the public can have absolute confidence in the project, I plan to bring proposals for legislation to Cabinet shortly on data protection in respect of the Eircode project. The proposed legislation will provide clarity on the use of Eircodes and Eircode databases to ensure that data protection issues affecting the project and the general public are fully addressed.

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