Republic of Ireland postal addresses
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In the Republic of Ireland, postal addresses do not use a post code system. Rural addresses are specified by the county, nearest post town, and the townland. Urban addresses are specified by county, city or town name, street name, house number, and apartment or flat number where relevant. A house name may be used instead of a number.
Responsibility for the postal system rests with An Post, a semi-state body; however, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources retains the right to regulate addresses, and has disagreed with An Post over whether there is a need to introduce postcode system.
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[edit] Dublin postal districts
In Dublin city and its suburbs, a system of postal districts was introduced in 1917 by the British government, with the prefix "D", and retained after independence, without the prefix. However the use of district numbers by the public did not occur until the mid-1960s as evidenced by street signs of house developments prior to the 60s only displaying the street name in Irish and English. The Dublin system now has 22 districts.
[edit] Cork postal districts
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In Cork, there are also numbered districts, eg: the 'PATRICK STREET' (Sráid Phádraig) sign will display the digit '1', but these are not encountered in postal addresses. Cork has four postal districts. District 1 covers the city centre and large parts of the surrounding city. District 2, administered from the Ballinlough sorting office covers the south-east, District 3 (from Gurranabraher) covers the north-west while District 4 (from Togher sorting office) covers the south-west. In practice these numbers are only used internally by An Post and rarely used on mail.
[edit] Moving towards a postcode
[edit] An Post disputes postcode
An Post did not introduce automated sorting machines for mail until the 1990s. By then, the optical character recognition (OCR) systems were advanced enough to read whole addresses, as opposed to just postcodes. Consequently mail to addresses in the rest of the Republic does not require any digits after the address. "Leapfrogging" is what economists call the replacement of old technology with advanced technology in one step without using intermediate technologies.
An Post has argued that a nationwide public postcode system is unnecessary, describing it as “a 1960s solution to a 21st century problem” [1], that it would be expensive, and that its existing system is superior.[2]
[edit] Townland problems
Concerns were also expressed by traditionalists that postcodes would undermine the use of historic townland names. (Royal Mail in the UK approached the problem of postcodes in rural Northern Ireland by naming previously unnamed roads after the townlands through which they passed, and assigning numbers to houses. The naming of roads was initially refused by Fermanagh District Council, resulting in a solution (unsatisfactory to some) of a postcode being assigned to each townland.) However courier services and direct mail companies complained that the absence of such a system put Ireland at a disadvantage compared with other European countries[2].
Those advocating an Irish postcode system point out that many people living in rural (and even some urban) areas share the same postal address. This becomes particularly confusing when there are people of the same surname living at different addresses within the same rural townland. This also creates problems for delivery drivers, the emergency services and any visitors unfamiliar to an area trying to find an address (especially since in such areas it is rare for roads to be named or houses numbered, and there is limited signage indicating where townlands begin and end).
[edit] Preparation for a postcode
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. A Postcode Working Group met in early 2005 and produced a report[3] recommending the implementation of a postcode system.
On 23 May 2005 the Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, announced[4] that postcodes would be introduced in Ireland by 1 January 2008. . In November 2005 the National Statistics Board issued a report welcoming the decision[5] and making recommendations as to its implementation. 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,[6] with the existing Dublin system retained.[7].
In June 2007 a brief[8] to the new Minster for Communications, Eamon Ryan, stated that a memo was submitted by the Department of Communications to the Irish Government in May 2007 seeking approval for the implementation of the postcode system. 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. However in August 2007 the Minister[9] reportedly postponed the implementation of the system "indefinitely", pending additional public consultation.
On 18 October 2007 Eamonn Ryan announced at ComReg's "Postal Services in the 21st Century" conference that "...[Post] codes should be introduced as a matter of priority". The introduction was stated to be subject to cabinet approval.[10] On 25 February 2008 the Irish Independent reported that the proposals were being presented to the Cabinet with a view to full national implementation before summer 2008. It stated that Eamon Ryan was finalising the proposals, which include a 6 character format postcode, giving a sample of "DO4 123" where "DO4" corresponds to the current Dublin 4 postal region and "123" is a specific group of buildings.[11] Traditional postcodes used in many other countries, some developed over 3-4 decades ago, are allocated to cover entire streets of houses or groups of buildings.
On 7 December 2008, the Sunday Business Post reported results of an independent report by PA Consulting for the Department indicating that benefits of up to €22m could be achieved for public bodies through the introduction of a postcode. The PA report indicated that postcodes had greater uses beyond the delivery of mail or simple navigation services, citing the "need for efficient database based on postcodes reducing inefficient service delivery and infrastructural planning". 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."[12]
The article concluded saying that annual maintenance costs for a postcode management licence holder which would include maintaining the necessary database of buildings are estimated "at about €2.5 million", but the minister was reported as saying that "ongoing costs would be covered by income generated by the eventual licence holder".[12]
[edit] References
- ^ An Post View - Mr Derek Kickham ComReg Symposium on Postcodes November 24, 2003
- ^ a b An Post is against codes plan from RTÉ Business, May 23, 2005
- ^ An examination of the issues in relation to the introduction of a postcode in Ireland report of the Postcode Working Group (MS Word doc)
- ^ Dempsey announces programme to introduce postcodes in Ireland by 1st January 2008 Government press release
- ^ Statistical and Policy Value of Postcodes (MS Word, 30 K) - paper from National Statistics Board
- ^ All addresses to be given postcodes from The Irish Examiner, August 14, 2006
- ^ Upmarket Dublin survives postcode shake-up by Colin Coyle in The Times, September 10, 2006
- ^ Introductory Brief for Mr. Eamonn Ryan T.D. (PDF, 3 MB) Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources 15 June 2007
- ^ Breakingnews.ie Minister to delay postcode system
- ^ Ciarán Hancock (19 October 2007). "Minister keen to introduce postcodes". The Irish Times. http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2007/1019/1192737567054.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-12.
- ^ Heffernan, Breda (2008-02-25). "An Post signals end of the road for exclusive 'D4'". The Irish Independent (Independent News & Media). http://www.independent.ie/national-news/an-post-signals-end-of-the-road-for-exclusive-d4-1297111.html. Retrieved on 2008-02-26.
- ^ a b Connolly, Nianh (2008-12-08). "Postcode system could save public bodies €22m.". Sunday Business Post. http://archives.tcm.ie/businesspost/2008/12/07/story38097.asp. Retrieved on 2009-01-21.
