Postal addresses in the Republic of Ireland
[2] Before the introduction of a national postcode system (Eircode) in 2015, this required postal workers to remember which family names corresponded to which house in smaller towns, and many townlands.
[5] Responsibility for the current postal delivery system rests with An Post, a semi-state body; however, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources (DCENR) retains the right to regulate addresses if they wish so.
By then, the optical character recognition (OCR) systems were advanced enough to read whole addresses, as opposed to just postcodes, thereby allowing An Post to skip a generation.
[24] On 24 February 2008, The Sunday Times reported that Ryan was finalising the system and hoped to bring the plans to cabinet before the summer of 2008, for introduction in 2009.
[29] The project was again delayed, but in December 2010 the government agreed to seek tenders for procurement of national postcodes, with an estimated cost of €15 million, with the contract to be awarded in the summer of 2011, with the codes introduced by the end of that year.
[30] On 29 June 2013, The Irish Times reported that the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, was to bring details to the cabinet meeting of 2 July.
[20] Following a cabinet meeting on 8 October 2013, Rabbitte announced that a unique seven-character code would be assigned to every postal delivery point ("letterbox") in the state.
[4][32] In the light of the liberalisation of postal services and the end of An Post's monopoly, ComReg, the Communications Regulator in Ireland, began considering the introduction of postcodes.
On 23 May 2005, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, in a government press release[34] announced that postcodes would be introduced in Ireland by 1 January 2008.
It was later announced that the postcodes would include the one- or two-character county codes currently used in vehicle registration plates, making them alphanumeric,[36] with the existing Dublin system retained.
It also stated that the decision arising from this submission was that the Minister would revert to Government following further analysis to quantify the benefits, which would then be followed by a public consultation process.
On 18 October 2007 Eamon Ryan announced at ComReg's "Postal Services in the 21st Century" conference that "[Post] codes should be introduced as a matter of priority".
It stated that Eamon Ryan was finalising the proposals, which include a 6 character format postcode, giving a sample of D04 123 where D04 corresponded to the current Dublin 4 postal region and 123 was a specific group of buildings.
It said that Postcodes are considered critical for "efficient spatial planning and aiding health research, education, housing social care and employment integration".
Increased efficiencies for businesses would emerge; in particular, the insurance sector stated that "it would result in annual savings of around €40 million by improving their risk management assessments.
[45] Liz McManus, opposition spokeswoman for communications in the Labour Party, called for the plan to be revoked due to job losses in An Post, the projected costs and fears of junk mail.
[53] Legislation to "provide for the establishment, operation and maintenance of a system of postcodes" – the Communications Regulation (Postal Services) Bill 2010 – was introduced in November 2010.
[57] On 29 June 2013 The Irish Times reported that the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources, Pat Rabbitte, was to bring details to the cabinet meeting of 2 July.
A consortium led by Capita Ireland had been awarded the tender to develop, implement and operate the system, at a cost of €27 million over a ten-year period.
[60] They later became actively involved in implementing the new Eircode system, with their CEO saying they were investing in their four main sorting centres to adopt the new postcode system at a cost of €1m, according to an Irish Times report stating "An Post chief executive Donal Connell said it would work "very closely" with Eircode, the new company set up by Capita to manage the codes, in implementing the national infrastructure.
Mr Connell said €1 million from An Post’s capital investment fund would be spent to install new software in its four national sorting centres.
[61][62][63] Courier services and advertising mail companies complained that the absence of such a system put Ireland at a disadvantage compared with other European countries.
[67][68] The cost, procurement methods used, slow rollout and implementation of the system (originally proposed in 2003) were criticised, including in a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General.
[69][70] A March 2019 survey of homes and businesses commissioned by the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform reported that 30% never quoted the Eircode when giving their address, 32% did so only "occasionally", 22% "frequently", and 12% "always".
