Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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561. To ask the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine the cost of upgrading information technology systems and-or databases to incorporate the use of Eircode; if the use of Eircode is mandatory in his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8625/17]

Michael Creed (Cork North West, Fine Gael)
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The total cost of upgrading ten major computer systems in the Department  to facilitate Eircode is estimated at €276,375 from 2014 to date. The use of Eircode is not mandatory but the Department has run a number of promotion campaigns, including at the National Ploughing Championships in 2015 and 2016 to encourage farmers to update their contact details to include Eircodes, and further initiatives are planned. In addition, the Department has provided a self-service facility on its online services portal (www.agfood.ie)for farmers to provide their Eircode. The Eircode provides a means of unambiguously identifying and locating our customers and this is particularly useful in the case of rural areas where there are many instances of non-unique names and addresses in a particular townland.