Plenty of money for postal code system

Times are not so tough after all.

I see the Government is going to spend €16m on a postal code system that will be the world’s first to uniquely identify every single address in Ireland.

They will even use seven digits — better than Canada which gets by with six, or the miserly USA which usually uses six.

I guess they were so busy they forgot to read the recent Canadian study that showed with the advent of handwriting recognition programmes the only use for postal codes was for recognising areas suitable for mass mailings (ie junk mail).

But I guess this is what you get when you only rely on postal code promoters as your sole source of advice. I will never again be able to explain that Irish postmen didn’t need a postal code as they know where the addresses are.

Garry Nixon

Tower St

Cork