Republic of Ireland postal addresses

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Postal addresses in Ireland are similar to those in many other parts of the world. Currently 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.

An Post has argued that a nationwide public postcode system is unnecessary, describing it as “a 1960s solution to a 21st century problem”.^[1] that it would be expensive and that its existing system is superior.^[2] 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 a solution (unsatisfactory to some) 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 with other European countries^[2].

Those advocating an Irish postcode system point out that many people living in rural (and even some urban) areas 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 unfamiliar to an area trying to find an address (especially since in such areas it is rare for roads to be named or houses numbered, and limited signage indicating where townlands begin and end.)

In the light of the liberalisation of postal services, and the end of An Post's monopoly, ComReg, the Communications Regulator in Ireland, began considering the introduction of postcodes. A Postcode Working Group met in early 2005 and produced a report^[3] recommending the implementation of a postcode system.

On 23 May 2005, the Minister for Communications, Noel Dempsey, announced^[4] that postcodes would be introduced in Ireland by 1 January 2008. In November 2005, the National Statistics Board issued a report welcoming the decision^[5] and making recommendations as to its implementation. It was later announced that the postcodes would include the one- or two-character county codes currently used in vehicle registration plates, making them alphanumeric,^[6] with the existing Dublin system retained.^[7].

In June 2007 a brief^[8] to the new Minster for Communications, Eamon Ryan, stated that a memo was submitted by the Department of Communications to the Irish government in May 2007 seeking approval for the implementation of the postcode system. It also stated that the decision arising from this submission was that the Minister would revert to Government following further analysis to quantify the benefits, which would then be followed by a public consultation process. However, in August 2007, the Minister^[9] reportedly postponed the implementation of the system "indefinitely", pending additional public consultation.

On 18 October 2007, Eamonn Ryan announced at ComReg's "Postal Services in the 21st Century" conference that "...[Post] codes should be introduced as a matter of priority". The introduction was stated to be subject to cabinet approval.^[10] On 25 February 2008 the Irish Independent reported that the proposals were being presented to the Cabinet with a view to full national implementation before summer 2008. It stated that Eamon Ryan was finalising the proposals, which include a 6 character format postcode, giving a sample of "DO4 123" where "DO4" corresponds to the current Dublin 4 postal region and "123" is a specific building.^[11] This proposal would seem to suggest that there could only be 999 properties in each area post coded if each building is to have a specific Post Code as suggested.