Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 18 February 2014
456. Deputy Sandra McLellan asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources the reason a UK company has been given the tender for the new Irish postcodes at the cost of €25 million; the reason he did not use an Irish company such as Loc8 code which is a free service; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7608/14]
View answer459. Deputy John Lyons asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources if he will provide an update on the introduction of postcodes here; the cost of the introduction of this scheme to the State; and if a decision has been reached on the postcodes for the Dublin area as of yet. [7667/14]
View answer472. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Communications, Energy and Natural Resources further to Parliamentary Questions No. 389-394 on 4 February 2014, where he stated an open and competitive procurement process was conducted in accordance with Department of Finance and EU procurement frameworks in relation to the awarding of the postal code contract to Capita, if his attention has been drawn to the fact that an Irish SME has had the process examined by the EC Public Procurement Unit in Brussels and is claiming that a judgment has been returned which states that the financial requirements in the procurement process set by the Government breached EU regulations and this and other elements did not conform with the guidelines either in the EU or in Ireland regarding the facilitation of SME participation in procurement processes; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [8060/14]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 456, 459 and 472 together.
The Government approved the appointment of Capita Business Support Services Ireland Limited as the company which will develop, roll-out and operate the National Postcode System following the conclusion of the public procurement process in 2013.
My Department received no offer to provide a postcode system without cost as part of the procurement process under which the postcode operator was chosen.
The introduction of the national postcode system to the state is expected to cost around €16m as the postcode system is developed and rolled out over the next 2 years and there will be a cost of about €1.2m per year over the remainder of the licence period.
It is intended that householders will be informed of their postcodes in 2015 when the system will come into operation. In the meantime the groundwork designing the code and updating private and public sector databases to accommodate the new postcode system is currently under way. The design of the postcode is currently being finalised. At the time of the conclusion of the procurement it was announced that the postcode is intended to be a 7 character code and in Dublin, the existing postal districts will appear as the first 3 characters of the new postcode.
My Department received correspondence from the EU Commission during 2012 in relation to the procurement process for the National Postcode System. The case was fully examined by the EU Commission which informed the Department in November 2013 that the matter was closed and no further action would be taken by the Commission.
