Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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817. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the public and private companies which are using the Eircode system. [6551/16]

Alex White (Dublin South, Labour)
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The commercial element of Eircodes, including use by private sector firms, is  managed by Capita the Eircode licence holder as part of a ten year contract to develop, maintain and support the system.

In order to encourage usage and take up of Eircodes, over 80 million records across 15 public sector bodies were encoded prior to their launch. This has allowed a number of public sector bodies to start using Eircodes in public engagement.  Since launch, over 3 million pieces of correspondence has been issued by public sector bodies. Examples of usage by public sector bodies include the following:

- The passport card online application form was introduced in October 2015 and all passport card online application forms request an Eircode.

- All 2016 Census forms, currently being delivered to households, include an Eircode.

- The Department of Transport has started uploading the National Vehicle and Driver File (NVDF)  with Eircodes. This database includes address particulars in respect of the 2.59 million licensed vehicles and 2.74 million driving licence holders in the country. The motor tax database of the NVDF went live in January 2016.

- Revenue Commissioners has uploaded Eircodes in some of their main databases and started issuing Eircode enabled correspondence on July 2015.  In November 2015 alone one database issued more than 800,000 pieces of correspondence with Eircodes.

- The Department of Social Protection started issuing Eircode enabled correspondence in October 2015; since then more than 877,000 pieces of correspondence has issued with an Eircode.

- The educational grants authority, SUSI, request that college grant applications include an Eircode.  This will assist SUSI to more efficiently determine student addresses.

- Electric Ireland issued 680,000 electricity bills in February which had an Eircode included on them.

- A new version of the Register of Electors was rolled out to 31 local authorities. This version incorporates the ability to add in an Eircode against a dwelling.

- The Emergency Call Answering Service (ECAS), which takes emergency calls made to 112 and 999 numbers, has also updated its systems and changed processes to enable the use of Eircodes when presented by callers.

- The National Ambulance Service has installed a new computer-aided dispatch system, which incorporates the Eircode.  This will allow callers in any part of the country to phone the ambulance control centre and give their Eircode.