Naughten adds Eircodes to his constituency office addresses

Minister for Communications Denis Naughten has added Eircodes to his constituency offices after admitting yesterday, on the first anniversary of the system's introduction, that he did not use them.

The revised information on the Independent TD's website now includes Eircode locations for his constituency office on Abbey Street, Co Roscommon as well as his office located in Monksland Business Park, Athlone, Co Roscommon.

Mr Naughten told RTÉ's Morning Ireland he was not using them during an interview where he also defended the value of the €38 million system in the face of criticism when he had to admit that he did not use them himself.

The Irish Times was unable to immediately contacted Mr Naughten for comment.

Speaking a year on from the introduction of Eircode, the Independent TD said the system could take up to five years to be fully implemented.

He said Eircode was being used commercial firms and Government departments. One company, Campus Oil has emphasised the worth of the codes.

“We’re at a situation at the moment, it is 12 months in operation. It is like a small baby who has started to crawl and people are asking why isn’t the baby running?” Mr Naughten said on Thursday, adding that emergency services in rural areas found it invaluable.

Meanwhile, the Garda Siochana is increasingly using Eircode to track where firearm licences are held “so they know exactly in which premises these firearms are”, the Minister declared.