Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

The Bill may well merit a 20-minute contribution, but one has to cover many bases when one is a member of a small party. I have not had enough time to examine this legislation, but I am pretty concerned about it. I can see the case for having a postcode system that is uniform and allows people in business, or others who for any reason need to communicate with people or get to places, to find those places. I can see the logic of that, but I worry about the way we are doing this and the system that is being put in place. I am open to correction on certain aspects of it but, based on what I have seen and what I understand this to be about, I am quite concerned about it.

The Minister, in his opening speech, said that Ireland was the only country in Europe that did not have a national postcode system. Fair enough, but we will now be the only country in Europe that has a national postcode system with individualised addresses. We are going from one extreme to the other. Already a number of people, including the Data Protection Commissioner, have raised concerns about data protection and privacy issues. I share those concerns. It all smacks a little too much of Big Brother. There will be a database with individualised addresses which will be controlled by a private multinational corporation. That is kind of Orwellian. I do not see why it is necessary. I understand the critics of this scheme say that the norm is to have postcodes based on clusters, not based on individualised addresses, and that is generally the case across Europe. The cluster model meets the requirement to have a standardised postcode system but it does not bring it right down to individualised addresses, with every dwelling or business having an individual postcode on a centralised database controlled by a multinational corporation. I am concerned about that aspect, and that is a concern that has been raised by the Data Protection Commissioner and others.

I understand the company, Capita, that will implement the system does not have a great history. I was informed - Deputy Daly may have said this earlier, and it is amusing in a way - that Private Eyedubbed this company "Crapita" because it made such a mess of other systems in which it was involved in the UK, where it mis-assigned people to certain categories and so on. That is not very encouraging now that this company has been awarded the contract. Small and medium enterprises have been very critical of the fact that they were excluded from the tendering process for the postcode system. The contractor to be awarded the project was required to have a turnover above a certain threshold. Domestic small and medium-sized enterprises that might have wanted to bid for the contract, as some of them did, were excluded from tendering for it, as I understand it, because of the tendering conditions. Instead, the contract was awarded to a big multinational. That seems unfair on those companies, and it would further add to my concerns in that we are placing the contract in the hands of an anonymous multinational over which we have very little control.

The other aspect about which I am concerned is the charges that will apply. While householders are not to be charged at this stage, small businesses will be charged €10 a month. The officials might nod to affirm whether I am correct on that. There will be a charge for accessing the database to obtain more than a certain number of addresses or postcodes, which I believe is 15. One might say these are relatively modest fees, and there are none for ordinary householders at this stage, but will it stop at that? It is a little bit like water charges. Once the system is established, can the charges be increased, and if so, by how much? Could this become just another money-making racket at the expense of ordinary householders and small businesses? That would be a significant concern as well.

Has the Government worked out an impact assessment with regard to employment among postmen or among staff of small businesses generally? I am concerned that this system is setting up the infrastructure to get rid of the local postman or woman - perhaps not immediately, but it lays the ground for that. It may be a sentimental view on my part, and I do not live in the countryside, but even out my way in Dún Laoghaire, the local postman or woman, who knows where people in the area live, is a human point of connection between one's family and the postal system. I like that, and I would not like to see it replaced. It is one of the characteristics of this country that is worth keeping and protecting. I wonder if this system essentially lays the basis for the privatisation, much more centralisation and so-called efficiency in the area of postal and parcel delivery and communications generally, which will ultimately usurp the local postman or woman.

All of this will cost us €27 million. One wonders whether that is a good expenditure on something about which there has been significant concern and the benefits of which will substantially go to a multinational. Indeed, this seems intended to facilitate multinationals more generally in terms of postal communications. I am concerned and sceptical about this project as the Minister has presented it.

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