Ruth Coppinger (Dublin West, Socialist Party)
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1549. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will report on the implementation of the Eircode system; if there is an indication on the level of usage of Eircodes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [31507/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Eircode, the National Postcode System for Ireland was officially launched on 13 July 2015 together with the new online ‘Eircode finder tool’ that helps citizens and business to fully utilise the new postcode system.. 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.

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. Over the course of the Community Outreach Programme over 170,000 members of the target group were reached. 5,377 organisations received information about Eircode and 10,620 volunteers recruited to assist.

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