Written answers

Tuesday, 27 June 2017

Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources

Postal Codes

Photo of Clare DalyClare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent)
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115. To ask the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the status of the progress of the roll-out of Eircodes. [29482/17]

Photo of Denis NaughtenDenis 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".

Since the launch in July 2015, Eircode usage, as part of an address, continues to grow and is used widely among the public, businesses and public sector.  This, in part, can be seen by use of the free Eircode Finder app having to-date over 13million free lookups, with an average daily hit rate of 24,000.

Eircodes are available on Google Maps, and other Sat Nav Providers, such as TomTom, facilitating better access for consumers and businesses to digital goods and services.

Capita have licenced over 30 approved Eircode Providers, many of which are SME’s developing Eircode applications for use by businesses across a spectrum of business categories. These include parcel delivery companies like Nightline, DHL and CityPost as well as food delivery businesses such as Domino’s Pizza, using Eircodes to accurately locate proprieties for timely deliveries.  Also, there are many businesses that use Eircodes free of charge by using a number of free Eircode Finder app’s to provide services to their customers.

Eircodes are being used by public sector bodies including, CSO, OSi, National Transport Authority, Student Universal Support Ireland, Local Authorities, Revenue, Department of Social Protection, Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and the Health Service Executive. Other state bodies and agencies that interact with the public have incorporated Eircodes into their operational systems.

The National Ambulance Service (NAS) integrated Eircodes into their Computer Aided Dispatch system and actively encourage people who are seeking an emergency ambulance to have their Eircode available to pass it on to the call taker. This means that the patient’s address and the position of the nearest available ambulance can be accurately pinpointed on a digital map. This enables an ambulance to quickly and accurately be routed to someone in need of medical help.

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