Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 12 December 2023
122. Deputy Aengus Ó Snodaigh asked the Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications if his proposed three-year extension of the soon-to-expire existing ten-year national postcode system (Eircode) contract with a company (details supplied) has or will require an additional expenditure of in excess of €38 million; if so, what the additional public funds are for; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [54670/23]
View answerCapita Business Support Services Ireland, trading as Eircode, was awarded the contract to develop, implement, maintain and promote the National Postcode System "Eircode" on an initial ten-year period which is extendable at the discretion of the Minister for a further five years, in December 2013. Minister Ryan wrote to Capita in March of this year notifying them of his decision to extend the contract by a further three years. This decision to extend the contract was noted by Cabinet.
Since the launch, Eircode use, as part of an address, continues to grow strongly among the public and businesses and this, in part, can be seen by use of the free-to-use Eircode Finder app (finder.eircode.ie/#/) with a total of 159m lookups and a monthly average of 2.5m. Independent research carried out by Amárach Research in 2023, 2020, 2017 and 2015 showed that 97%, 93%, 84% and 89% respectively of respondents know the Eircode for their address, exceeding public awareness targets. Also, there are 2,423 business organisations and state agencies licencing Eircodes within their business systems and operations across a wide spectrum of sectors, including the leading satnav providers.
In recognition of the fact that earlier assignment of Eircodes for new builds is desirable, Capita have now reduced the timeframe to assign Eircodes from quarterly to a monthly basis. This followed a successful pilot project undertaken by Capita, supported by my Department, working intensively with An Post, Ordnance Survey Ireland and An Post GeoDirectory. All new Eircodes will be published on the free to use Eircode Finder website, a notification letter will be issued to the property occupant containing the new Eircode and an updated Eircode Database files will be provided to licenced businesses for their use. The average number of new Eircodes assigned per month is 3,550.
The expected cost to the Exchequer over the initial ten-year period will be €40m (inc. VAT), with additional costs attributed to increased frequency of Eircode assignment on a monthly basis. The three-year extension expected costs a further €8m (inc. VAT), which include Department staff costs and annual recurring capped payments to Capita upon successful achievement of minimum service level milestones for communications, on-going dissemination of new Eircodes (both monthly and quarterly) and pass-through payments for access to An Post GeoDirectory data.
