Under proposals being brought before the Cabinet in the next few months, every home and business across the country is to get a new six-character postcode to bring Ireland into line with the rest of the EU. Dublin postcodes will be based around the existing format with Dublin 4 becoming DO4 123, with the last three digits representing a specific house or business.
Meanwhile it is expected the rest of the country will roughly follow the existing car licence plate system, with addresses in Sligo starting with SO and those in Galway with GAL. It is argued that a new national postcode system will improve efficiency by overcoming problems associated with incorrect addresses on mail, although An Post says it is managing just fine without it.
However, it will be a major benefit for marketing companies. It will also help emergency services pin-point specific addresses more quickly. “Postcodes are a much bigger piece of infrastructure than just An Post. It has implications for every business, resident, county council, road.
“We don’t need it for processing, but we will be at the heart of it and will play our part . . . Our system is state of the art and has the capacity to run all different types of coding. We can certainly cater for it if and when it is introduced, and it looks increasingly like it’s just a matter of setting a date,” she added.
Communications Minister Eamon Ryan is finalising the postcode plans and is expected to bring them to Government before the summer.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Irish Post Codes, PostCodes, Postal Codes, PON Codes - For Ireland!!!!
This system cannot work - there is no way that 3 digits as suggested can define a specific house or business within a post code area. This would suggest that there are no more than 999 properties in Dublin 4!!!. I’m afraid either your report is wrong or it is as we previously suspected - the Post Code will not use what is already in place and take advantage of modern GPS technology and the existing Irish Grid System. If it can’t work in cities how could it possibly work in rural areas where it is most needed?
Any proposal along these lines will require every property to be allocated a code (3 characters not enough anyhow) which is a huge implementation undertaking and cost. This system will also require a large database for any mobile technology to use with a significant update requirement to go with it. The costs and labour are significant!!!
We have developed and promoted a system for more than 1 year now which uses the existing Irish Grid System under which each square meter in the country already has a code and this code can be expressed in 7 alphanumeric characters - Our Business Address Post Code (PON Code) is WVR J3DQ which defines our location to a SatNav or GIS to within 3 meters accuracy. It can be also defined as C-WVR J3DQ to indicate visually that it is in Cork but this is only necessary for visual recognition - a SatNav would not require the extra number plate County identifier. This system will be available on Garmin SatNav receivers for test in March. Each property already has a code under this system and it can be found out by a free mapping service on our website - no need for the cost and time delay associated with the Government allocating it and it can be used straight away in a SatNav and GIS without a large database which someone will have to pay to update… and will become hopelessly out of date very quickly.
This announcement is like one for the design of a new wheel with the spokes to be added later!!!!!
For details of a system that will work and will be available from March at no cost to the user see: http://www.gpsireland.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=79
Rgds,
Gary Delaney
GPS Ireland
Tel: 021 4832990
gary@gpsireland.ie
February 25th, 2008 at 5:50 pm
Irish Postcodes, Post Codes, Postal Codes, PON Codes For Ireland.
Don’t know where you got this report but there is no way the code system as you explain could work - i.e do you suggest that there are only 999 properties in Dublin 4.
The only system that is rational and will have minimum implemtation costs that can be used without access to a large database and has no update costs is a system based on Irish Grid - my business post code is WVR J3DQ which defines my location in Irish grid to within 3 meters and veryone can find their postcode free of charge from free web mapping.
This system will be on Garmin SatNav’s for test from March 2008 and all are welcome to try.
This announcement seems to tell us of the design of a wheel without spokes???
See a system that works and will be available in March here: http://www.gpsireland.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=79
Rgds,
Gary Delaney
Tel: 021 4832990
GPS Ireland Ltd
gary@gpsireland.ie
February 25th, 2008 at 5:52 pm
Do you mean to suggest that there are only 999 properties in Dublin 4 - this could not work - see a system that will work and will be on SatNav’s in Mrch 2008 here http://www.gpsireland.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=47&Itemid=79
February 25th, 2008 at 5:53 pm
This is from todays Irish Independent
February 25th, 2008 at 8:01 pm
Sorry for the repeated posts - server returned error each time I submitted - Someone in the independent has got it wrong it seems - what they explain could not work. However, some of the official proposals for this Post Code system do not connect with the reality of navigation which is what this is all about.
GPS/GIS etc are the technologies to use not some unrelated smart database system that has no relationship to the Earth’s surface……
There are now 1 million SatNav’s in Ireland and more that 10 million GPS receivers - surely any system devloped should make use of this readily available technology which is used by all as opposed to back office servers which have limited use outdoors!!!!
Thanks for the space
Gary
March 16th, 2008 at 4:03 pm
We now have postcodes in Ireland according to Irish Times Friday 14th March 2008 - http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/finance/2008/0314/1205104769704.html