John Kelly (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister to the House.

I wish to raise the issue of post codes, a matter I raised on the Order of Business some weeks ago. I understand Ireland is one of the last remaining countries in Europe that does not have post codes in place. The process of introducing post codes was initiated in 2006 and in 2009 the then Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Eamon Ryan, said they would be in place by 2011, but nothing has happened to date.

The reason I raise the issue is that I am looking at it from an emergency services point of view more than anything else. I am aware it has other benefits from a postal delivery point of view.

In Dublin, if an ambulance does not arrive within eight minutes, it is almost a crime. Unfortunately, in rural Ireland, if one is lucky, one will have an ambulance in 45 minutes. Recently, I saw an ambulance passing through my town and going out my road. I stayed behind it and was curious as to whether there was an emergency in the area. I noticed the ambulance pull up on two occasions and each time it was seeking directions. On both occasions, the ambulance staff ended up talking to non-national ladies who did not really understand what they were looking for. I followed the ambulance and the staff eventually found our community park where an incident had occurred. This demonstrates the kind of difficulty we have when we do not have postcodes in place. We need them in place so that emergency services can pinpoint their destination accurately. This is a particular problem late at night when there is nobody around to provide directions to the emergency services. I would appreciate a response.