Every address to get postcode by early 2015

Every address in the country will have a new seven character postcode by early 2015.

Online shoppers, businesses, delivery drivers, motorists and emergency services are among those to benefit from the introduction of the new easy-to-remember identifier in the format A65 B2CD with the first three digits relating to the postal district.

When the system goes live, Ireland will join other European countries, which have used postcodes for local areas for decades.

But Ireland will be the first country in the world to have a unique postcode for each address.

Communications Minister Pat Rabbitte said the Cabinet had agreed to a rollout of a new national system, headed by the Capital Ireland consortium. He said the system would cost €25m over 10 years.

“I am very pleased to announce that Ireland will at last have a publicly owned national postcode system,” said Mr Rabbitte.

“Most countries have had the benefit of such systems since the mid-1900s. The Irish code will be the first in the world to be unique to each individual address.”

He said this would alleviate the current situation whereby more than 30% of all domestic addresses are not unique. It will mean that individual apartments and offices in large developments will each have an individual code as long as specific postboxes are provided.

The postcode will be a seven character code in the format A65 B2CD, with the first three characters relating to a general area or postal district in which the address is located. “There are many benefits, for example, given the prevalence of satellite navigation systems in cars, a driver will simply be able to insert a postcode into their device and will be provided with the accurate location,” said Mr Rabbitte. “Similarly this will benefit emergency services such as ambulance drivers to locate destinations for call-outs, which in some instances are life and death situations.”

He said Government departments would be able to use postcodes to locate people more efficiently, but denied it was a way to ensure payment of levies and taxes.

Employers’ group Ibec said the system had the potential to reduce business costs. “The postcode will benefit not only retailers but also consumers through enabling better use of online services and home delivery,” said Aidan Sweeney. “This new postcode system will bring wider societal and economic benefits such as better planning of public services.”

Labour TD Michael McCarthy for Cork South West said: “It will have a particular impact in rural Ireland, where one-third of all homes have ambiguous addresses that can only be interpreted by someone with local knowledge.”