Noel Harrington (Cork South West, Fine Gael)
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177. To ask the Minister for Social Protection her plans to include the new Eircode postcode in all schemes and administrative roles operated by her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28321/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Department will be undertaking a phased introduction of postcodes across its systems and processes, including its forms and communications. An internal project plan for the achievement of same has been developed.

The plan includes updating the main production platform to introduce capacity for postcodes, uploading the initial dataset, the implementation of a postcode finder, the development of batch jobs and refactoring communications to include postcode address details.

To this end, following a procurement exercise, a third party has been contracted to assist the Department undertake the necessary internal system modifications in line with overall project timelines. Current planning and release schedule provides that the project will be completed by the end of Q4 2015.