Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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1135. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the future use of the Eircode system; if An Post is one of the sponsoring bodies; if he has advised An Post to become involved; if there is a human resource difficulty in An Post regarding its use of the system; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37858/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Eircodes are an essential piece of the national postal infrastructure, which was successfully rolled out in July 2015 with the assistance of An Post, amongst others. An Post, as universal service provider, was engaged in the design phase of the national postcode project and the Eircodes are fully integrated with An Post mails sortation systems. An Post were also heavily involved in the dissemination of the Eircode to 2.2million residential and business addresses following the project's launch. Both the CEO and mails operations director for An Post have stated publicly that An Post will use eircodes in all their mail operations.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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1136. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views on the introduction of Eircodes; if he will request an assessment on their uptake and usage and whether the uptake and usage is consistent with what was envisaged; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38051/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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Eircode, the National Postcode System for Ireland was launched on 13 July 2015. The Eircode system is a vital piece of national infrastructure and before its introduction Ireland was the only country within the OECD that did not have a National Postcode System. A successful national information campaign was completed over the summer to inform the public about Eircodes and promote their usage. 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; a number in excess of the target set out for Capita, the Eircode contractor. Public sector bodies, such as the Revenue Commissioners and Department of Social Protection, have started using Eircodes in customer engagement and this process will continue over the coming months. In accordance with the contract for the development and maintenance of Eircodes, my Department has put in place reporting structures with Capita which will, inter alia, include information on the commercial use of the Eircode system. Since the launch, a total of 21 Value Added Resellers have been signed up to develop and sell products and services using Eircode databases.

Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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1137. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources his views that the State has achieved value for money from the €57 million spent on the Eircode project; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38052/15]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The cost of the contract with Capita who were awarded a ten year licence to develop and maintain the postcode system is €27m. Taking consultancy costs, staffing costs and VAT the total cost of the project is estimated to be €38m over its lifetime. The total cost of the project covers design of the eircode, encoding public sector databases, accessing the GeoDirectory database, the launch and implementation of Eircodes and the ongoing management of the system for the licence period. The total spend to date on the postcodes project amounts to €19.5m (including VAT). Capita have been paid €17.5m (including VAT) to date on foot of delivery of agreed milestones. The bulk of this figure, €9.4 million was spent on encoding public sector bodies' databases. Aside from payments to Capita, €2m (including VAT) has been spent on specialist costs arising in the project in the period 2009 to date.

Public sector bodies such as the Revenue Commissioners and the Department of Social Protection are already using the codes in day to day business.

Capita has signed up 21 Value Added Re-sellers who will develop products and services using the Eircode databases.

As the Eircodes were only launched in July, usage of the codes is only starting to be visible and it is too early to make an evaluation of the project. However, based on engagement with public and private sector bodies during the developmental phase of the project, I am satisfied that, in time, as usage of Eircodes increases, they will support economic activity and deliver social benefits.