Post/Zip codes and Ireland

antoinolachtnai

Well, these things aren't as easy to do as they look. There are a lot of constituencies involved. If the thing needs to be reviewed, it needs to be reviewed, there's no point in pushing something out the door for the sake of it.

larchill

Aye, maybe, but all the re-analysis & re-consultation will not necessarily give us a better postcode system, just increase the cost & provide an opportunity for more consultants to make a few bob.

See attached re. article in yesterdays Examiner ...

PCode2.gif

There's mention of a geographic survey off all roads & townlands! That'll be a mammoth task to say the least. Having set it up the database will need to me maintained on an ongoing basis. It'll could a fortune.

I saw a sight the other day - an ambulance with lights flashing stopping to ask for directions! Vital seconds were lost. There's a clear need for a 'location' code system of some kind.

antoinolachtnai

Well, to be fair, there already is a database of roads and townlands, and it needs to be maintained in any case.

You don't really need to re-survey everything. The government just has to re-purpose the databases it already has.

pork99

Despite costing a fortune everything the public sector does in this country is a f*ck-up and this is just another example.

More examples

http://www.eire.com/2006/04/09/it-failure-the-integrated-ticketing-system/

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/ennis-the-cybertown-comes-back-down-to-earth-with-a-bump-1063451.html

In this country government looks after vested interests (eg an Post and their dm businesses) and consistently fails to provide development of infrastructure for the wider community.

antoinolachtnai

Well, these things aren't easy to do. There's no point pretending they are.

One of the things about projects like ITS in particular but also PPARS is that the reason they go over budget is that the complexity was completely underestimated at the beginning.

Mind you, I think the postcode can be done in a way that is technically not that complicated (although there's a good bit of thinking and consensus building to be done).

MrPudding

antoinolachtnai wrote:

Well, these things aren't easy to do. There's no point pretending they are.

One of the things about projects like ITS in particular but also PPARS is that the reason they go over budget is that the complexity was completely underestimated at the beginning.

Mind you, I think the postcode can be done in a way that is technically not that complicated (although there's a good bit of thinking and consensus building to be done).

Inability to assess the complexity of a project is a fcukup in and of itself. For me saying "ah well, it was more complicated that they first thought" does not make it ok, for me it is yet an other example of public sector incompetance.

Banks manage to roll out mind bogglingly complicated systems on time and on budget. Why can't the government.

MrP

antoinolachtnai

You are certainly correct that underestimating the project is no excuse. But often there is political pressure to come out with a lower cost estimate.

For example, look at the Metro. The government is saying this can be built for a relatively modest amount of money and within 3 years. This is obviously not true. The complexity of tunneling and building stations under sensitive historical buildings is clearly being ignored. However, if these costs and times were taken into account realistically, political support might fall away and the project would then never be started.

Banks' systems aren't necessarily all that complex in principle. And they frequently run up costs far beyond what was originally planned. Many projects are abandoned (which is often a wise way to conclude an IT project). You never hear about these issues, but there are plenty of them happening.

larchill

Looks like this issue is still alive ...

http://www.dcmnr.gov.ie/Press+Releases/Minister+pledges+to+progress+delivery+of+postcodes+for+Ireland.htm

The new Minister hasn't for gotten about it. We watch with interest.

Del2005

Was only recently thinking about this and if anything was being done. Then saw this in Sundays Indo. Does anyone have any more info?

http://www.independent.ie/national-news/postcode-war-in-next-year-1479383.html


Mods, dragged up this old thread delete if new thread is more appropriate please delete.

LFCFan

Has anyone else noticed the addition of new sign posts all over the place at the entrance to back roads? They begin with an L, e.g. L0045. Are these a precursor to post codes? I guess the L stands for Lane? Anyone got any insight into this?

Alun

LFCFan wrote: »

Has anyone else noticed the addition of new sign posts all over the place at the entrance to back roads? They begin with an L, e.g. L0045. Are these a precursor to post codes? I guess the L stands for Lane? Anyone got any insight into this?

They're Local roads, one step down from Regional roads. They've actually been around for ages in as much as the CoCo's use them on their own internal maps, but haven't been extensively signed before now. I'm not sure why they're doing it exactly, but there are a lot of them popping up, including in Wicklow. Nothing to do with post codes, or the lack thereof though, I think.

LFCFan

I really hope it's not postcode related because I can only imagine the mess of a system if these were part of it

Aard

LFCFan wrote: »

I really hope it's not postcode related because I can only imagine the mess of a system if these were part of it

It's 100% not postcode-related.