Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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549. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his response to concerns that the proposed postcode system, Eircode, will not be utilised by freight and courier companies due to an intuitive address adjacency not being included within the new code, and because of this companies will start to adopt their own codes from the private sector using part of the data contained in Eircode; his views that emergency services will not be able to rely on the code; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [44819/14]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Eircodes have been designed to manage challenges around finding addresses in Ireland, specifically the fact that more than 35% of addresses are non-unique. This is why the solution adopted will assign a unique seven digit alpha numeric identifier to each address. Using this approach to assigning codes does not support sequencing of individual codes as such a system is not future proofed in relation to infill new build.

There has been widespread support from both public sector bodies and private businesses with particular interest from the retail and financial industries for the introduction of postcodes nationally. For example, Nightline who are Ireland’s biggest independent logistics firm are fully supportive of the introduction of Eircodes. In addition, the emergency services, and in particular the National Ambulance Service, have welcomed the introduction of Eircodes as the codes will facilitate the speedier deployment of their services. An Post, who were actively involved in the design process, and who are fully committed to using Eircodes, are currently updating their mail sortation systems to fully integrate with Eircodes. Eircodes will facilitate improved efficiencies and quality improvements in the mails sector and provide a stimulus to mail volumes through improved marketing capabilities.