Mattie McGrath (Tipperary South, Independent)
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891. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide the data which supports his view that the introduction of the Eircode postcode system will improve competitiveness and support and maintain jobs; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28213/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Eircodes, the National Postcodes System, was launched yesterday. Over the next two weeks, every residential and business address in Ireland will receive a letter in the post informing them of the new Eircode for that address. My Department conducted a Cost Benefit analysis of the proposed postcodes system in 2010, which was updated last year to reflect the stage of development of the project at that time. The Cost Benefit Analysis showed that, in addition to the project yielding a positive in Net Present Value to both the State and Private Sector, it would also bring about a wide range of other benefits including:

- facilitating the accurate location of all addresses in the State, including the 35% of Irish addresses that are ‘non-unique’;

- making it easier for consumers to shop online, and assist the development of Irish online commerce;

- improving the efficiency and accuracy of internal business processes as a result of improved accuracy and consistency of databases across public and private sectors;

- making it quicker and easier for emergency services to locate addresses, particularly in rural areas;

- delivering improved efficiencies with regards to logistics;

- providing better planning and analysis capabilities across public and private sectors;

- enabling organisations to improve existing services and/or develop new service offerings;

- facilitating improved efficiencies in the mails sector.

In addition, during the development of the postcode system, my Department conducted extensive consultation with major public and private sector stakeholders who highlighted the benefits of Eircodes to their operations.

Once public and private sector organisations start to use Eircodes, I am satisfied that their use will help underpin competitiveness and, in turn, support jobs.