Republic of Ireland postal addresses

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Postal addresses in the Republic of Ireland are similar to those in the rest of the English-speaking world, but there is no national post code system. However, Dublin is divided into postal districts, under a system which was similar to that used in cities elsewhere in Europe until the introduction of postcode systems in the 1960s and '70s.

At the time, Ireland did not follow suit, and An Post did not introduce automated sorting machines for mail until the 1990s. By then, the introduction of new technology, known as Optical Character Recognition (OCR), meant that machines could 'read' whole addresses as opposed to just postcodes. Consequently, mail to addresses in the rest of the Republic does not require any digits after the address, eg:

Neil Dowling 
10 Glenview Court 
Blessington
Co.Wicklow

This contrasts with Dublin addresses, eg:

Noel Dempsey TD,
Government Buildings, 
Kildare Street,
Dublin 2

An Post has argued that a nationwide public postcode system is unnecessary, describing it as 'a 1960s solution to a 21st century problem'^{[citation needed]}; that it would be expensive and that its existing system is superior.^[1] Concerns were also expressed by traditionalists that postcodes would undermine the use of historic townland names. (Royal Mail in the UK approached the problem of postcodes in rural Northern Ireland by naming previously unnamed roads after the townlands through which they passed, and assigning numbers to houses. The naming of roads was initially refused by Fermanagh district council, resulting in the unsatisfactory solution of a postcode being assigned to each townland.) However, courier services and direct mail companies complained that the absence of such a system put Ireland at a disadvantage compared to other European countries^[1].

Those advocating an Irish postcode system point out that many people living in rural (and even some urban) areas currently share the same postal address. This becomes particularly confusing when there are people of the same surname living at different addresses within the same rural townland. This also creates problems for delivery drivers, the emergency services and any visitors unfamilliar to an area trying to locate an address (especially since in such areas it is rare for roads to be named or houses numbered. Indeed it is often difficult when travelling through rural Ireland to know which townland one is in since there are few roadsigns indicting where townlands begin and end !)

In the light of the liberalisation of postal services, and the end of An Post's monopoly, the Communications Regulator in Ireland began considering the introduction of postcodes. A Postcode Working Group met in early 2005 and produced a report^[2] recommending the implementation of a postcode system. On 23 May 2005, the Minister for Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, Noel Dempsey, announced^[3] that postcodes will be introduced in Ireland by 1 January 2008. In November 2005, the National Statistics Board issued a report welcoming the decision^[4] and making recommendations as to its implementation.

In August 2006, Dempsey announced that the postcodes would include the one- or two-character county codes currently used in vehicle registration plates, making them alphanumeric.^[5] It has been reported^[6] that the current Dublin system of postal districts will be retained and any postcode system will be placed after the current district number. As of October 2006, the precise details of the system have not been released.