Damien English (Meath, Fine Gael)
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Question 229: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources the reason the existing GeoDirectory system, that contains each of the 1.5 million building records in the State, cannot be utilised by An Post rather than the proposed postal code system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23197/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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I have asked the Commission for Communications Regulation, ComReg, to appoint project managers to support the postcode project. As a next step I will appoint a national postcode project board, comprising representatives of Departments together with public and private sector organisations, to assist the project managers with their work. It is hoped to present a proposal describing in sufficient detail the most efficient, effective and most publicly usable postcode system by 31 December 2005. In its deliberations, the project board will examine all of the options for a postcode system. This may include an examination of An Post's GeoDirectory.

Whilst the GeoDirectory has already been developed and adopted by some organisations and goes some way towards solving the problem of identifying individual addresses in townlands, it has certain characteristics that impact upon its suitability for use as a public postcode system and it is not consistent with the generally accepted definition of a postcode as a "unique, universal identifier that unambiguously identifies the addressee's locality and assists in the transmission and sorting of mail items."

An Post has also advised that the GeoDirectory product is not a publicly available postcode system. It is a commercial, proprietary, address database that is linked to geographical co-ordinates to provide a unique identifier for buildings and has been developed by An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland. The cost of the GeoDirectory product supplied by An Post is expensive for most businesses and comprises a once-off fee of €57,000 plus an annual licensing fee of 14% of the initial cost. These high costs reflect that keeping the GeoDirectory database updated is a continual and labour intensive exercise and that geo codes are not automatically assigned and require manual intervention.

While a postcode can be used with automated mail process systems, it must also be capable of being used with manual systems. The GeoDirectory product is a building identifier and the purpose of a postcode system is to make it easier to process and deliver mail. The GeoDirectory's design means that it is only when combined with An Post sorting technology that it can be employed as a technical postcode. However, because approximately 40% of Irish addresses are not "unique", the An Post sorting technology, when deployed, cannot always match the address written on the envelope with the list of delivery points. If a postcode system were in place a much greater proportion of letters could be automatically sorted, and when human intervention is necessary the time needed would be shorter.

Other potential drawbacks to the use of the GeoDirectory as a postcode system, as identified by ComReg, include that there may also be data protection and privacy issues as the database requires an occupier's name to be recorded on the database in rural areas. It is also a sequential technical code that is not intuitive or easy to recall and this could impact upon the public adoption rates of any new postcode system based on the GeoDirectory.

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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Question 230: To ask the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources if his Department has involved the National Standards Authority of Ireland in the working group examining the possible introduction of new postcodes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [23198/05]

Noel Dempsey (Meath, Fianna Fail)
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To examine the introduction of a postcode system in Ireland, I established a working group comprising 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 month.

Following from the report's recommendations, I have asked the Commission for Communications Regulation to appoint project managers through a competitive process to support the postcode project. As part of their work the project managers will consult with various interest and expert groups with a view to designing a range of postcode proposals best suited for Ireland. As a next step I will appoint a national postcode project board, comprising representatives of Departments together with public and private sector organisations, to assist the project managers with their work. It is hoped to present a proposal describing in sufficient detail the most efficient, effective and most publicly usable postcode system by 31 December 2005.