Written answers

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

National Postcode System Implementation

Photo of Tommy BroughanTommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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100. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will report on the roll out of the recently introduced Eircode; if his Department is monitoring the usage of Eircode; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31688/15]

Photo of Joe McHughJoe McHugh (Donegal North East, Fine Gael)
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Eircode, the National Postcode System for Ireland was officially launched by the Minister on 13 July 2015 together with the new online ‘Eircode finder tool’ on the website . The Eircode Finder, is an eircode look up application that helps citizens and business to fully utilise the new postcode system. There was significant interest in the ‘Eircode finder tool’ on launch day with over 800,000 look ups when it went live. During the three weeks following the launch, the 2.2 million residential and business address in Ireland received a letter in the post informing them of the new eircode for that address.

A successful national information campaign was completed over the summer to inform the public about eircodes and promote their usage. The campaign included advertisements in the national media, including TV, radio and newspapers. The media campaign ran until 30 August 2015.

An integral element of the communications strategy was the Community Outreach Programme for eircodes using networks of community and voluntary organisations, in conjunction with the Wheel and Irish Rural Link. The aim of this programme was to provide information on eircodes and their benefits to people and groups that mainstream communications may not have reached. This approach allowed any concerns to be addressed locally in a timely manner. Over the course of the Community Outreach Programme 15,377 organisations received information about Eircode with 10,620 volunteers recruited to assist. During this phase 4,722 local organisations were mobilised and 1,235 events were held involving the target group.

During the dissemination phase of eircodes, Amárach, an independent body, conducted two parallel surveys, a face-to-face survey of 1,200 households and 200 business premises. The results of the surveys showed that 89% of the public knew the eircode for their address.

Public Sector bodies, particularly those with large customer facing operations, have started using eircodes in customer engagement and this process will continue over the coming months.

Since launch the Eircode contractor has been engaging with commercial organisations and, to date, has signed up a total of eighteen Value Added Resellers who provide a broad spectrum of eircode specialist services to businesses including Database cleansing, Address lookup and GeoCoding. In accordance with the contract for the development and maintenance of eircodes, my Department has put in place reporting structures with the contractor which will, inter alia, include information on the commercial use of the Eircode system.

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