Ireland's postal sector is due to liberalise fully on January 1, but postcodes must be introduced as an important piece of infrastructure for Smart economy ,if we are to benefit from the liberalisation, state the Irish Exporters Association .

The Irish Exporters Association (IEA) today reminded the Communications Minister, Eamon Ryan T.D., that the liberalisation of the country's postal system under EC legislation will be meaningless unless it is accompanied by the introduction of a postal code system that would bring Ireland into line with all other EU member States.

Howard Knott, IEA Trade Facilitation director, stated;

"It is imperative that the Minister moves immediately to out -source the implementation and operation of a modern postal code system, to support the efficiency of our international trade section."

He went on to say;

"We would urge the Minister to also take the opportunity, arising from Ireland being a �late adopter� of a modern postal code system, to specify a location based system which will take full advantage of recent developments in satellite based mapping and tracking technology."

The IEA point out that the technology to introduce such a system is available from a number of Irish Companies and the Association urges the Minister to initiate the Tendering process to select and licence a Provider without delay. The Association is concerned that a failure to do this would allow the introduction of a number of incompatible systems geared towards specific users rather than one that was the benefit of all.

The Association reminds the Minister that, while the efficient delivery of mail by An Post is very important, the major potential benefits of a Location Based system will be elsewhere. A recently published Study showed annual cost savings to public bodies, including the emergency services of being in excess of €22 million. (Cost savings were identified in a number of government departments, including Revenue and the Department of the Environment, along with Health, and Social and Family Affairs.

A postcode system would facilitate cross-departmental sharing of public data and information dramatically cutting waste and duplication.

The private sector are expected to show efficiency gains as a result of the introduction of a new postal code system, including exporters who rely on an effective international supply chain, using standard computer based coding. Also the rapidly growing services sector will gain efficiencies from the new system, such as transport and distribution companies, as well as insurance and banking companies.

The IEA has been campaigning for a number of years for the introduction of a postal code system and has estimated an annual saving of up to €30 million in mail delivery and parcel distribution for Irish firms.

The IEA concluded it's comments by saying;

The National Postcode Project Board has said that the cost of implementing and promoting a national postcode system would be an estimated €15 million.

The IEA recommends that the Dept of Communications should out -source this development to the private sector, where there are a number of providers capable of providing a system up to international best practice standards , at a fraction of this cost.

The Association is confident that the annual administration costs of such a scheme, estimated at €2.5 million will be more than covered by the licence fee secured and that there will be no net cost to the Public Exchequer.

END

For further info contact Howard Knott, or John Whelan

Phone -016612182 ;e-mail hknott@irishexporters.org