Here we are at the end of 2022, almost 9 years since Eircode was launched, and another case of Eircode misrouting is identified. This time it is being identified by Councillor Ger Deere and Iarla Moran, Head of the Municipal District, in Castlebar, Co Mayo, without understanding the potential dangers of this if a resident of the named street has to call for an ambulance. Instead of an Eircode which "directs" to the wrong street being a  "not serious" "inconvenience" as suggested by the Connaught Telegraph Article, it could actually result in an ambulance being delayed getting to a patient in a case where minutes or maybe just seconds are critical. This is a particularly worrying possibility in a scenario where total reliance on Eircode and belief in its infallibility may have been created.

It is just about 6 months since a similar article appeared in the Irish Examiner reporting confusion with street & estate names. In that article on the 24th of June last problems caused for Gardai were acknowledged.

What these articles are telling us is that Eircode has not fixed well known problems with property addressing in Ireland and , in fact, it seems to be associated with making matters worse as suggested in this article from 2017.

It also tells us those who run our cities, municipalities and rural areas have been convinced by Public Service Announcements, marketing and political statements that Eircode is flawlessly precise and a perfect destination identifier for Navigation, when this Newsblog makes it abundantly clear that it is not. Furthermore, we can also see that there is confusion as to who is responsible.

Because it was recognised before Eircode that we had significant issues with our property addressing system and because this appears to have deteriorated further in recent years, an over reliance on Eircode is being caused. Amongst the public in general and those who respond to emergencies, there is a bias that addresses cannot be relied upon at all so, they should be ignored in favour of total reliance on Eircode. In the professional discipline of Navigation, this is a recipe for disaster. Since it is well proven on this Newsblog that Eircode can & has misrouted, that disaster may well be related to the loss of life. I regret to say that, in the not too distant future, this subject may end up for consideration in a Coroner's Court where over reliance on Eircode, a failure to understand its limitations, the undermining of property addressing and all the people and factors that contributed to these, will be exposed in detail. Just like air or marine accident investigations, it will be found that contributing factors were obvious to those responsible for related oversight for some time but were consistently set-aside and/or ignored.

Iarla Moran suggests in the Connaught Telegraph article that Eircode and street addressing have nothing to do with the Council. When it comes to property addressing, that is not entirely true but this article makes it clear that property addressing is nothing to do with Eircode. Nor is it anything to do with Google Maps. In fact, it is useful to know that the Postal Addressing associated with Eircode is not actually passed to Google Maps when Eircodes are passed on. However, as has been discussed in this Newsblog many times, it may be possible to resolve misrouting on Google Maps by making contact with Google BUT this does not assure that the same problem is resolved on other mapping and navigation systems used by emergency services or logistics companies. As we have highlighted before, the National Ambulance Service does not navigate to an Eircode location using Google Maps. We have to be very clear here, whilst property addressing is mainly an issue for An Post (with input from Local Authorities), Eircode misrouting is the sole responsibility of Capita which manages Eircode for the State. The misrouting wrongly identified as an "inconvenience" in the article should be brought to the attention of Eircode immediately and they must ensure that whatever steps are necessary to resolve the issue in ALL mapping and navigation systems, especially those used by emergency responders, are undertaken as a matter of urgency;-  with unambiguous confirmations when achieved.

As we reach the end of another year where evidence of the misrouting of ambulances has been prominent and the absence of warnings from those responsible has been conspicuous, we can only hope that 2023 will be better in the best interests of Public Safety for all residents in Ireland!

Misrouting of vehicles, including ambulances and 1st responders, by Eircode has been reported for many years now.
New examples keep being reported through social media and that means there are many more that go unreported. The above image is from a post a few days ago in boards.ie and is just one more of many many examples.

Those who report Eircode mis-routing in relation to deliveries do not always realise that the very same could happen if an ambulance is trying to find them........ ;- but with potentially life and death related consequences. Even though Eircode & the Department of Communications promote their product through Public Service Announcements (PSA's) on RTE for ambulance emergency response, they continue to fail to take any responsibility when a misrouting report raises the possibility of an ambulance being led astray and delayed. They also have taken no steps to warn the public about this well documented issue.

Eircode misrouting is predictable and can be avoided. It is explained in detail in our post here -/>

We are aware that in previous cases Capita personnel have advised those reporting the issue to contact Google Maps to get them to help solve the problem (not always possible or timely). Not only have they not admitted that by simply moving the location of the Eircode themselves they could resolve the problem, they also fail to advise those with the problem that even if they get the problem solved in Google Maps, the issue may well remain for ambulances as they use a different mapping system (CoPilot - Trimble Maps). Furthermore, other service providers may be using Garmin/Navigon, TomTom or other navigation/map systems which all would have to be contacted to fully (though possibly temporarily) correct a problem which Eircode created and could solve themselves. Unfortunately, Eircode will not do as required to resolve the matter as the An Post design specifications for Eircode limit what the code can point to.

The quickest solution for those experiencing Eircode mis-routing is to generate a Loc8 Code for the access to the desired property using the web-app here -/> Then create a sign with the Loc8 Code on it and place for all to see - guidelines for displaying Eircodes or Loc8 Codes are here -/>
It is important to understand that the National Ambulance Service has fully integrated Loc8 Code into their systems side-by-side with Eircode since 2017.

If you are reading this post, please #checkyourcode , advise others to do so also and please do it for those who can't. We are very happy to help and you can make contact with us here -/>