John Gormley (Dublin South East, Green Party)
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Question 29: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the way in which the introduction of post codes will be financed. [19928/05]

Liz McManus (Wicklow, Labour)
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Question 42: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if he will ensure that traditional place names are retained in the new postcode system he plans to introduce; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that the communications regulator has expressed concern at the potential for traditional place names to be lost under any new postcode system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19911/05]

Breeda Moynihan-Cronin (Kerry South, Labour)
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Question 110: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the safeguards which will be included in the new postcode system to ensure that individual privacy is not threatened; his views on whether the introduction of postcodes could lead to pigeonholing and stereotyping of people and communities depending on where they live; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [19912/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 29, 42 and 110 together.

The Deputies should be aware that Ireland is the only country in the EU which does not currently have a national postcode system.

The Commission for Communications Regulation, whose remit includes postal issues, produced a report which followed a consultative process held in November 2003. The report is broadly favourable to the introduction of a postcode system and is a useful contribution to the debate on the issue.

I am favourably disposed towards the introduction of postcodes because of the case made that a national postcode system would offer significant potential benefits for the postal business, public utilities including the emergency services, business and consumers.

To this end I established a working group comprised of people with experience of the postal sector, together with a representative from the Department of the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, which is the lead department for the Irish spatial data infrastructure initiative to examine the issue of the introduction of a postcode system in Ireland. This group produced its report earlier this year.

The report found that the introduction of a publicly available postcode could deliver many potential benefits. The purpose of a postcode system would be to improve efficiencies and quality in the postal sector, stimulate mail volume growth, assist utilities and emergency services to address the problem of non-unique addressing and facilitate competition by making it easier for new postal operators to enter the market. These improvements collectively will boost the country's competitiveness.

Following from the recommendations of the working group report, consideration of the feasibility, design and implementation of a practical postcode project proposal will be advanced including establishing the cost of implementing such a postcode and how that cost should be met. In accordance with the recommendation of the working group that project managers be appointed to lead the postcode project, I have asked the Commission for Communications Regulation to appoint the project managers. A national postcode project board, comprising representatives of Departments, together with public and private sector organisations, will be appointed by the Minister to assist the project managers with their work and to present a proposal describing in sufficient detail a model that is the most efficient, effective and publicly usable postcode system by 31 December 2005.

The precise nature and format of any proposed postcode system has yet to be decided but I understand it is possible to allocate a code to every delivery point in a town land in a methodical way so that every person who is aware of the coding convention can identify where a specific delivery point is situated in relation to another delivery point or to a reference point. This enables the retention of the current address both in English and Irish irrespective of spelling. A postcode also overcomes the data protection-privacy issues that arise when a person's name and address is stored on a database in order to identify a specific delivery point. In its deliberations, the project board will take these matters into consideration when arriving at its recommendations for a postcode system.