Who uses Eircode?

Sir, – A glaring omission from Minister for Communications Denis Naughten's defence of Eircode is that nowhere does he list An Post's actual postal service as having adopted Eircode (February 15th).

Despite the fact that An Post is the net beneficiary of the vast majority of the €21.3 million spent so far on Eircode, not a single postman or postwoman is equipped to use it.

If the Irish postal service does not use Eircode, then it is not a postcode, and therefore neither Mr Naughten nor his department has any remit pushing what is now obviously a purely commercial billing ID. – Yours, etc,

GAVIN TOBIN,

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Rathcoole,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Mr Naughten’s letter made me laugh with his mention of the millions of look-ups since its inception. A good portion of these will be surely be people looking up their own Eircode.

As a regular flyer, I note Ryanair insists that I enter it, which is why I keep looking mine up. It is the only organisation I use that asks for my Eircode.

I seem utterly incapable of retaining the code despite still recalling song lyrics, how glaciers are formed, phone numbers of long-dead grandparents and the birthdays of people I have not seen since primary school. – Yours, etc,

CLAIRE BRADLEY,

Swords,

Co Dublin.

A chara, – If the introduction of Eircode was meant to overcome the delivery problem caused by 35 per cent of all residences in Ireland sharing the same address, then I look forward to the technology solution to solve the identity problem caused by humans sharing over 90 per cent of their DNA with our primate cousins.

We might need a bigger van. – Yours, etc,

DERMOT O’ROURKE,

Lucan,

Co Dublin.

Sir, – Collar size, hat size, Eircode. Place in order of knowing one’s own.– Yours, etc,

JOHN ROGERS,

Rathowen,

Co Westmeath.

Sir, – Una Mullally asserts, without any supporting evidence, that the Eircode system is illogical and poorly designed ("Eircode: there goes another ¤38 million down the drain", Opinion & Analysis, February 13th).

Perhaps she should have been on the case when Eircom foisted those hard-to-remember telephone numbers on us. I find it so difficult to recall all of the phone numbers that I need in my daily life that I am forced to carry around a small computer in my pocket to store them all. Worse still, my own phone number bears no relationship to those of my wife or children, despite the fact that they live in the very same house as me. – Yours, etc,

KIERAN O’CONNOR,

Cork.