Postcodes will cost lives, warn emergency workers

A group representing frontline emergency staff has warned lives will be lost unless the Government reverses its decision on a new national postcode system due to be rolled out next spring.

John Kidd, chairman of the Irish Fire and Emergency Services Association, said the “mainly random nature” of the Eircode system would mean errors by users would go unnoticed, as well as cause confusion and may be “catastrophic” in terms of sending services to the wrong location.

The Eircode system will see every address in the country given a unique seven-digit code comprising a three-digit ‘routing key’, and four-digit ‘unique identifier’.