Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)
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Question 16: To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his policy on postcodes; the cost of implementation; the cost of consultancy on this issue to date; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28021/08]

Eamon Ryan (Dublin South, Green Party)
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The National Postcode Project Board presented its recommendation as to the most appropriate postcode system for Ireland, the costs and benefits arising from its introduction, along with a detailed implementation, promotion and maintenance plan.

The report of the board concluded that the introduction of a postcode would be a valuable addition to the country's postal infrastructure and would also be of benefit to policy formulation and implementation as well as delivering a number of benefits arising from use of postcodes in spatial data analysis.

The work of the postcode board focused on quantifying the costs and benefits of postcodes to the postal sector including postal operators and customers and did not explicitly address non-postal costs and benefits.

A proposal concerning the introduction of postcodes went to Government in May 2007 and Government decided that prior to the introduction of postcodes, further analysis to quantify the wider economic and societal benefits should be carried out.

Consultants employed by my Department are working to establish a more complete estimate of the costs and benefits of postcodes to the public sector focussing on key Government Departments. Some of the public sector benefits identified by the consultants included better targeted service provision, improved policy formulation, implementation and evaluation, and better profiling of public expenditure.

I expect that this work will be completed shortly and upon receipt of the analysis I will consider how best to proceed on the proposal.

To date, my Department has incurred €27,225 in consultancy fees for the project and I expect that a further €27,225 will be incurred to finalise the analysis currently under way.