Eircode Anomolies

Maidhci · 24-07-2015 9:24am

The_Conductor wrote: »

Wunderbar. So what is the purpose of this Eircode. An Post aren't sorting post by it- and in any event- as the numbers are non-sequential- it wouldn't work anyway. Courier companies are using an alternate system (the Loc8 system)- and then any of us tradionalists- in addition to physical addresses- use GPS coordinates (the emergency beacon on my phone, my marine radio and my aviation radio- use GPS coordinates- which can map on Finder and Search and Rescue sites).

So- if the emergency services won't even use it for residential addresses- precisely what use is it?

Why do ask what use is it? Does it have to have a use? After all, look at all the other crazy concepts and projects undertaken at the taxpayers' expense that had no use whatsoever except feathering the nests of some consultancy firms, obviously selected by a very transparent selection process!!

Perhaps, this rationale - were we not the only modern developed country in the EU not to have a postcode system? - I think this is one of the reasons advanced for the electronic voting system - look where that got us!

The_Conductor · 24-07-2015 9:27am

Maidhci wrote: »

Why do ask what use is it? Does it have to have a use? After all, look at all the other crazy concepts and projects undertaken at the taxpayers' expense that had no use whatsoever except feathering the nests of some consultancy firms, obviously selected by a very transparent selection process!!

Perhaps, this rationale - were we not the only modern developed country in the EU not to have a postcode system?

Just bought something of ebay a few mins ago.
I put my Eircode in their 'Postcode' box- and its coming up as invalid......
Sigh........

my3cents · 24-07-2015 9:29am

I bet it won't be long before you have to use your eircode for online payment systems. What company isn't going to take advantage of using Eircode to vaildate an address when it adds to security?

my3cents · 24-07-2015 9:33am

The_Conductor wrote: »

Just bought something of ebay a few mins ago.
I put my Eircode in their 'Postcode' box- and its coming up as invalid......
Sigh........

There may have been a hint in the URL amazon.co.uk, why would they have started using the eircode system that soon?

Sam Russell · 24-07-2015 10:05am

The_Conductor wrote: »

Wunderbar. So what is the purpose of this Eircode. An Post aren't sorting post by it- and in any event- as the numbers are non-sequential- it wouldn't work anyway. Courier companies are using an alternate system (the Loc8 system)- and then any of us tradionalists- in addition to physical addresses- use GPS coordinates (the emergency beacon on my phone, my marine radio and my aviation radio- use GPS coordinates- which can map on Finder and Search and Rescue sites).

So- if the emergency services won't even use it for residential addresses- precisely what use is it?

It has a major use by the Revenue for LPT purposes. It will be used by Dept SP for anti-fraud purposes. It will be used by Irish Water to collect water bills as they cannot locate their meters in the 35% of addresses that are non-unique. Other Gov dept will use it because they are told to use it. That is about it.

It is as useful to the general public as an e-Voting machine or a water meter, or for that matter a water company.

Sam Russell · 24-07-2015 10:07am

my3cents wrote: »

There may have been a hint in the URL amazon.co.uk, why would they have started using the eircode system that soon?

ebay are not on amazon.co.uk. You will find ebay on ebay.ie.

The_Conductor · 24-07-2015 10:07am

my3cents wrote: »

There may have been a hint in the URL amazon.co.uk, why would they have started using the eircode system that soon?

I use ebay.ie - it refused my postcode.

my3cents · 24-07-2015 10:40am

Sam Russell wrote: »

ebay are not on amazon.co.uk. You will find ebay on ebay.ie.

My bad I had amazon.co.uk open here and wasn't thinking :rolleyes:

I still don't understand how anyone can expect any online company to be up and ready for eircodes yet. Getting them out to people is only the first step.

MBSnr · 24-07-2015 10:44am

The_Conductor wrote: »

I use ebay.ie - it refused my postcode.

Yes it's effectively the UK site, with just Euro conversion and with a .ie domain. They (unlike Paypal) seem to try and validate the postcode and expect it to be in the UK form if it is a certain character length. It does accept 'IE'.

I'd imagine it will change at some point. If you use Paypal and have added the postcode there, sometimes a paypal checkout (on any site) uses that address anyhow - or at least it seems to for me.

Trick of the Tail · 24-07-2015 10:52am

Eircode wasn't designed to be useful to the general public, or to An Post, courier companies, emergency services. It was designed solely for use by government departments and so the database can be sold to junk Marketting companies.

Monetising was the main reason for eircode.

Ben D Bus · 24-07-2015 2:27pm

I finally found my Eircode, based on a map search, but the address is incomplete in that it leaves out a line!

It's along the lines of "Apartment 10, Merrion Road, Dublin 4", when in fact there are 4 apartments that would match that address! It's missing the apartment development name. Some apartments in my developmment have a full address, others don't.

The FAQ says this is a proper postal address and therefore it can't be changed

BTW, I'm not lucky enough to live on Merrion Road - that's just a 'for example' to describe the problem

The_Conductor · 24-07-2015 5:37pm

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

Eircode wasn't designed to be useful to the general public, or to An Post, courier companies, emergency services. It was designed solely for use by government departments and so the database can be sold to junk Marketting companies.

Monetising was the main reason for eircode.

It depends on the government Department- while all are preparing to allow their use- I'm not aware of any department that is actually validating the codes- as in most cases correspondence is with a specified client (identified by a PPSN) and not necessarily with a specific address.

LeafLeafy · 07-08-2015 8:50am

Does anyone know how you can get eircode corrected as I've been moved to swords (lovely place to live but moved from there two years ago!)

Playing email tennis with eircode and data protection doesn't work as not personal data , also not a public body so doesn't have to comply with complaints legislation to investigate complaints etc.

The info on their website on my address is incorrect and that's what's annoying me!

moyners · 07-08-2015 10:17am

LeafLeafy wrote: »

Does anyone know how you can get eircode corrected as I've been moved to swords (lovely place to live but moved from there two years ago!)

Playing email tennis with eircode and data protection doesn't work as not personal data , also not a public body so doesn't have to comply with complaints legislation to investigate complaints etc.

The info on their website on my address is incorrect and that's what's annoying me!

They get the addresses from An Post through An Post's geodirectory. If An Post sorts your mail from Swords then I'm afraid they won't change it as that's what they regard as your postal address. Go to An Post's address verifier on their website and if that comes up with Swords too they won't change it. They won a high court case against Comreg in 2012 that let's them define your 'postal' address to suit themselves.

http://correctaddress.anpost.ie

plodder · 07-08-2015 10:37am

LeafLeafy wrote: »

Does anyone know how you can get eircode corrected as I've been moved to swords (lovely place to live but moved from there two years ago!)

Playing email tennis with eircode and data protection doesn't work as not personal data , also not a public body so doesn't have to comply with complaints legislation to investigate complaints etc.

The info on their website on my address is incorrect and that's what's annoying me!

Swords is quite a large area, from An Post's point of view. It stretches over into Co. Meath quite close to Ashbourne. So, I'd say a lot of people are surprised by that (now it's publicly known).

Ben D Bus · 07-08-2015 10:58am

moyners wrote: »

Go to An Post's address verifier...

http://correctaddress.anpost.ie

I never knew that existed. Of the 30 apartments in my block, 3 appear when I enter the block name.

If anyone used my address as per An Post's list then my mail would be delivered to a house at the other end of the road

Trick of the Tail · 09-08-2015 1:06pm

It doesn't really matter if the address they put on your Eircode envelope isn't your usual postal address, that's just the address that conforms to An Post's system and never needs to see the light of day.

You can and should continue to use the address you've always used.

Whether you publicise your Eircode for people to send you stuff is up to you, but there's really no point since An Post don't use Eircode, nor does anyone else for deliveries.

In fact no one is really going to use it for anything useful to you at all, so it really is pointless.

Irish Steve · 10-08-2015 11:18am

Putting my cynic's hat on for a moment, the implementation of Eircode is an absolute winner for "state services".

Imagine the implications of having to have Eircode on driving licences, vehicle registration details, social welfare records, revenue information, and property insurance policies.

No more "I didn't get the summons" claims in courts.
No more "It went to the wrong address" claims for things like NCT, parking fines, and related issues.
No more subtle variations of addresses to confuse single parent claims.
Absolute certainty about how many people in a specific location are claiming benefits.
Absolute certainty about the location of properties that are receiving rent allowances, and who is benefiting from those allowances as both tenant and landlord.
Absolute certainty about where to send the Irish Water bills.
No more potential for multiple insurance claims for the same event under multiple policies
Absolute certainty about Local property tax liabilities and responsibilities.

I'm sure there will be plenty more similar advantages of the Eircode system once the departments look more closely at it, perhaps structuring it in the way they did wasn't so strange after all.

I could also come up with some very useful benefits in respect of things like TD's travel expenses, if they have to record the Eircode of every place they claim travel expenses to/from, that could make for interesting reading.

Looks like most of the "advantages" of Eircode are win win for state services.

Bray Head · 10-08-2015 5:10pm

Irish Steve wrote: »

Absolute certainty about the location of properties that are receiving rent allowances, and who is benefiting from those allowances as both tenant and landlord.
Looks like most of the "advantages" of Eircode are win win for state services.

Department of Social Protection have already adjusted their forms to include a postcode field. Filling it in is not compulsory, yet. In theory this is unfortunate. In practice making postcodes compulsory to access state services from Day 1 would have had the conspiracy brigade out in droves, with potentially a boycott campaign.

This hasn't happened so far and I suspect it won't at this point. If after a decade or so eircode gains widespread use I suspect state bodies will start to insist on one if you want to deal with them.

The_Conductor · 10-08-2015 5:13pm

Bray Head wrote: »

If after a decade or so eircode gains widespread use I suspect state bodies will start to insist on one if you want to deal with them.

Why bother- most already use PPSNs as a unique identifier.
Having a second primary key in databases- is completely unnecessary.

Bray Head · 10-08-2015 5:17pm

The_Conductor wrote: »

Why bother- most already use PPSNs as a unique identifier.
Having a second primary key in databases- is completely unnecessary.

A PPS number is a unique identifier for a person.
An eircode is a unique identifier for a dwelling.

Very useful when detecting fraud relating to lone parent or housing payments.

Currently two individuals with unique PPS numbers can share an address and it is impossible to tell if they are sharing a dwelling.

my3cents · 10-08-2015 5:20pm

Bray Head wrote: »

Department of Social Protection have already adjusted their forms to include a postcode field. Filling it in is not compulsory, yet. In theory this is unfortunate. In practice making postcodes compulsory to access state services from Day 1 would have had the conspiracy brigade out in droves, with potentially a boycott campaign.

This hasn't happened so far and I suspect it won't at this point. If after a decade or so eircode gains widespread use I suspect state bodies will start to insist on one if you want to deal with them.

I wonder how long it will be before for ID requirement for setting up a new account for something like a mobile phone contract, bank account etc will include a utility bill with the correct eircode as part of the address.

btw, just signed up for a new PayPal account and they happily accepted an eircode in the postcode field.

Trick of the Tail · 10-08-2015 6:14pm

But as some keep reminding, Eircode does NOT aid delivery of letters. An Post DO NOT use it.

It's a bureaucratic way of identifying your dwelling, nothing more. It was not designed to be, and never will be, a location identifier or a POST code.

I wrote to them asking how I could use it on my sat nav, if there was a way of translating Eircode to lat/long so I could do this. They replied and said not unless you pay to use their database, which isn't cheap and is a very complicated thing that the user is responsible for decoding and extracting whatever information they want.

I replied and asked for confirmation then, that without paying for the database it was not possible for a member of the public to use Eircode on a sat nav.

They haven't replied yet; which I take to be a confirmation that no, it can't.

Which is strange, since it was paid for by public money.

mackerski · 13-08-2015 3:37pm

Trick of the Tail wrote: »

But as some keep reminding, Eircode does NOT aid delivery of letters. An Post DO NOT use it.

This must be the slow class: https://twitter.com/Postvox/status/589093996661735424

mayway · 27-08-2015 10:53am

plodder wrote: »

Not sure if would be considered rude, but D11 has a set of codes that begin with D11CK.

Seems to have slipped through the cracks though as they weren't supposed to allow codes that would look like names either.

Classic! I'd love one of those!

mayway · 27-08-2015 10:59am

The_Conductor wrote: »

I imagine having D22 instead of Co. Dublin- effectively knocks 15-20% off the value of a property........ Plenty of property in the greater area (including much of the Lucan landmass) were deemed Co.Dublin- by a certain Liam Lawlor (who also managed to shift some of Leixlip out of Kildare altogether- and into Lucan- such as those Weston estates just off the Celbridge Road- which were always part of Leixlip- before they got recategorised geographically...........)

If I ended up with a D22 postcode- I'd be pissed.

I haven't seen 20% of the values of houses in Portmarnock being knocked off since they were given eircodes that put them in Dublin 13 instead of Co. Dublin?

Impetus · 23-12-2015 6:14pm

The CRO has added the Eircode to each company "registered office" address.

However, they have made a typical Oirish dog's dinner of the job.

For each entry they put the code on the last line of the address. It begins with a comma, and they have mashed together both parts of the code.

Example

DUBLIN 2
,D02ABCD

instead of

D02 ABCD DUBLIN

There is no need for the comma, which misaligns the postcode, and there is no need to repeat the district number after the town/city name.

You can search any company at https://search.cro.ie/company and the entire mess has been consistently applied to the entire database.

Impetus · 23-12-2015 6:26pm

I have received three packages from DHL over the past week. The eircode was specified by each of the three senders.

In each case it was deleted from the DHL address label.

In two cases the eircode was put by the shipper in the postcode field at the shipping end - directly into the DHL computer system.

In one case it was incorporated with the city name - to prevent deletion in the postcode field, and to present the address in normal European address format.

The Eircode was also scrubbed in this case.

ukoda · 23-12-2015 6:30pm

Impetus wrote: »

I have received three packages from DHL over the past week. The eircode was specified by each of the three senders.

In each case it was deleted from the DHL address label.

In two cases the eircode was put by the shipper in the postcode field at the shipping end - directly into the DHL computer system.

In one case it was incorporated with the city name - to prevent deletion in the postcode field, and to present the address in normal European address format.

The Eircode was also scrubbed in this case.

Funny. Because I've received numerous packages from Amazon leading up to Christmas and most were delivered by DHL or UPS, my Amazon address has my eircode in it and not a single package had it "scrubbed" from the label.

Impetus · 23-12-2015 6:36pm

ukoda wrote: »

Funny. Because I've received numerous packages from Amazon leading up to Christmas and most were delivered by DHL or UPS, my Amazon address has my eircode in it and not a single package had it "scrubbed" from the label.

It was not "scrubbed" physically in my case. Deleted electronically. Three different countries of origin.

Eircode Anomolies

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