Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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299. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if his attention has been drawn to the fact that in devising Eircode, the postcodes assigned to certain addresses around the country do not reflect the county the property is in but rather the county assigned to it by An Post in a postal distribution system based on the railway lines dating to the 19th century; if his attention has been further drawn to the fact that many property owners are reluctant to use their postcode for this reason; his plans to address this anomaly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [10717/17]

Denis Naughten (Roscommon-Galway, Independent)
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Capita Business Support Services Ireland, trading as Eircode, was awarded a 10 year contract in December 2013 to develop, implement, maintain and promote the use of the National Postcode System "Eircode".

All postal addresses, geographical addresses and geo-locations are provided to Eircode from authoritative sources, namely An Post and Ordnance Survey Ireland through their subsidiary company An Post GeoDirectory.

Eircode does not change existing addresses and the Eircode can be added to the address normally used for the property. This address can be the most commonly used address, postal address or/and the geographical address. The free to use online Eircode Finder (provides both the geographical and postal addresses for properties in the state.

Increasing numbers of the public are looking-up Eircodes on the Eircode Finder, which remains very popular, with just under 10 million searches since the finder went live at launch. Because Eircode helps provide speedier access to care, the National Ambulance Service (NAS) actively encourages people who are seeking an emergency ambulance to have their Eircode available and pass it on to the call taker to ensure an ambulance can quickly and accurately be routed to someone in need of medical help. In addition, Google now integrate Eircodes within their Google Maps app.

While An Post uses the postal address to effect postal deliveries, property owners can simply append the Eircode to whatever form of address they normally use.