Postcodes coming to the Republic of Ireland

The last country in Europe to adopt postal coding will see implementation of the Eircode in the spring of 2015.

Coming late to the party, Eircode will identify every address in the Republic of Ireland with a unique code in the format 

ANN (a routing code) ANAA (the unique identifier).  

Eircode is also the name of the business that will issue and maintain Eircodes.  In late 2013, the Department of Communications, Energy and Natural Resources awarded the “Postcode Management Licence Holder” (PMLH) contract to Capita Business Support Services Ireland (supported by BearingPoint and Autoaddress).  The PMLH contract will be fulfilled by the Capita-owned business, Eircode.

According to the company website

Eircodes will help the public, businesses and public bodies to locate every individual address in the State. Eircodes will bring many benefits to the daily lives of people, householders and businesses.  Currently, around 35% of addresses - mainly in rural areas - do not have a unique name or number in their address.  With Eircodes, delivery of services and goods will be much easier and quicker to these addresses.

An Eircode will identify an individual address – rural or urban - and help show exactly where it is located, unlike other countries, where postcodes define clusters or groups of addresses.  It is much more than just a postcode.  It is a smart location code for all Irish addresses.

Eircodes will allow the quicker delivery of services to households and allow business to develop and improve their offerings to customers.
Eircodes will link easily with online maps, satnavs and smartphone maps.  When you enter an Eircode for an address into such systems, you will be able to find its location and the route to get there. 

 See more here. 

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