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WE ARE A long-established business, founded in 1860, in a pretty boring business-to-business industrial sector: packaging. It was obvious to us that as our traditional customer base is being eroded by the recession, we had to find ways to win new business from new customers, especially those involved in selling online. I want to deal with our attempts to understand and engage with social media, and Facebook in particular.
After a huge amount of work by all involved in setting up our websites (described previously on TheJournal.ie), we got to the stage where we were pretty happy that we had the basics in place. The next task was to respond to the challenge and opportunities offered by the whole social media thing.
Now, as an older chap of nearly 60, I am no spring chicken and readily admit that I have great difficulty in ‘getting it’. But everything I read about maximising your web presence and impact told me that SMEs must integrate and embrace social media, especially Facebook. Back to the dummies’ books for me: I set up a personal Facebook page to learn how to do the basics and get comfortable with the format. It was not at all difficult, much to my surprise.
Flushed with this success, I decided to go Facebook commercial. I picked two of our product ranges and set up the two pages, again not at all difficult.
I could not secure the Facebook page with the brand name until I had secured 30 likes. I sent around emails with links to the pages to my children, younger staff members and anyone else I could think of, asking them to ‘like’ my new pages. I got my likes for both and was able to secure the Facebook addresses.
Once my helpers stopped liking, I had expected the viral phenomenon of Facebook to generate more and more likes as the contagion of their likes spread to their friends and colleagues via their own Facebook pages.
Nothing. Stone dead. Zip.
OK, I reasoned, why would these people have any interest in my marketing products or the pages? They were just ‘liking’ them as a favour. On to my next step: Facebook advertising.
I draw up two ads on their (again very easy-to-use) templates. I give it a decent budget of €40 a day (€1,200 per month), select the UK market as sole target, 24-60 as the age range and appropriate Target Interest Listings – in this case direct marketing and a couple of other similar titles. The template tells me I have targeted 178,000 people who within my interest range and selected demographics. I fill out the payment box and click GO.
After a few hours my ads are approved and the likes on the pages take off. Happy days! The 40 quid is getting used up each day. I consider increasing the budget – and in the end decide to pause one ad and give the other the full budget.
The page with the ad running continues apace and the other one stops stone dead again. What about the viral effect this time? These guys are supposed to be mad about all things marketing.
So far I have spent €160. Time to look at the number of our own website visits clicked through from the Facebook pages. Result? Two! €160 quid for two clicks, each of whom looked at two site pages.
Clearly something is not right, so I decide to view the profiles of all those who clicked the ads. They hit one common spot – they were all in the UK. But they were aged from 13 to about 70, many were unemployed or in education, we even had a Muslim fundamentalist who is very concerned about things in Pakistan. Lots and lots of doting mothers with FB pages full of cutesy little life mottoes. It may well suit some types of businesses but I can say we are not among that number.
I switched off the ads, a slightly poorer but wiser chap. Time to check my likes again. Nothing, rien, zero new likes. Ads off, ‘likes’ gonzo. I’m an Irish male. I will not pay to be liked!
I did some stuff on Twitter too, with equal success! I prefer the dawn chorus.
We have our Facebook buttons on our websites and will keep the Facebook pages updated. It takes a bit of work and costs next to nothing and we are present in that space. If something comes out of it, great. But I will not be spending precious marketing euro on their advertising offering, their only form of income.
I recently spurned an offer to get in on a slice of the Facebook initial share sale. To my mind it is a bit like the product, overhyped. Bebo 1 was sold for $850 Million and within a few years sold on for under $10. Bebo 2 is down to float at a valuation of around $100billion. I can only see lots of tears down the road, but they wont be shed by Zuck or the earlier investors – who have already made vast returns even before the IPO.
I read an article some time back entitled something like ‘Google is the Internet’. We have been spending money with them every day since about 2002 with various AdWord campaigns. This week, I decided to examine the source of all hits on all our sites since last January.
Google in its various domain formats accounts for 92 per cent of all our visitors. I am but a simple engineer, but if you hold 92 per cent of the space, you own it. I am going to do my business with the top banana: the owner!
Peter Faulkner is chairman and owner of Faulkner Packaging, founded 1860. He lives in Dalkey and has three adult children. He is a non-executive director of a number of other private companies. He is a former chairman of the SFA and was one of the founders of ISME. He was a member of the government Taskforce on Small Business. His sites include www.discountpackaging.ie, www.snazzybags.com, www.snazzybags.co.uk, www.faulkner.ie, www.alububble.ie, www.95kpabags.com, plus a bunch of micro sites.
This article was written before General Motors pulled its advertising from Facebook.
I wonder how many lives the ‘€20 million over budget’ spent on Eircodes would have saved.
To put things in to perspective. A few years ago the government decided against vaccinating all young girls against cervical cancer because it wouldn’t be cost effective. Total cost? 10 million
38 million and no one needs/uses it.theft of state money.
Well even if it saved one life isn’t it worth it?
Is there no end to this and the last government giving out state contracts and state money to their cronies and their advisors. Did anyone believe Enda Kenny with his contract to the Irish people and his promise to end cronyism.
@peter. I find useful for finding places I’m not familiar with. It’s a lot better than taking the second left down that road, pass a tree that fell down last winter and it’s the 3rd or maybe the 4th house on the left.
Mickmc…im deeply distrustful of Eircodes and the people who gifted it to us along with all the criminal deceit and greed that accompanied it,IW,Poolbeg etc and …im still trying to master Google maps!!
€22.2 million went to An Post in illegal state aid masquerading as payment for their GeoDirectory database. Thing is GeoDirectory is 50% owned by Ordnance Survey who received nothing for their half.
We have one of the highest costing per capita health services in the EU that is second worst. Eircode is a symptom of a govt that goes for spin, smoke and mirrors rather than care for those who elects/pays it.
@peter. Out of curiosity is it the Eircode system it self you distrust in a Jim Corr conspiracy theory way or is it how it was formed? If it’s the latter fair enough but you might as well try using it now anyway, it is useful. If it’s the former I don’t know what to say.
@mickmc…im no conspiracy theorist……other than the politicians never ending conspiracy to tax and steal from us in ever more fiendish ways while they and theirs get ever richer.
No mickmc…….it’s to do with it being severely limited. Loc8 was offered for free but was turned down.
Eircode is designed only to help bill customers for the proposed Broadcasting Charge, LPT or IW…or any new charge coming down the line. It’s not sequential, so, couriers, fire brigades or ambulances cannot start rolling in a general direction until the whole code is put into the computer……as the first three letter ie; ABC…could be in Donegal or they could be in Kerry as the letters mean nothing to a designated area on the map…whereas Loc8 the first letters mean something and give a general area.
An Post don’t use it…that should tell you something about how worthless it is.
Well sure if it manages to keep track of you Al Ca and your other alias names you used on the journal it will have served it’s purpose.
Sorry mickmc….but I only have one, I don’t believe in having more than one account. I have no problem at all with the Journal doing a check on my account to see if more than one account shares my IP and banning me if it sees more…but I’m confident as I only have one.
Anyway, aside from your deflection….do you not see how bad Eircodes is?…no other country in the EU developed such a restrictive and useless code……and certainly not €20 million over budget.
If you were given a price of €18 million for a software job and it came in at €38 million and it was your own money….would you pay it?…or just give them the extra €20 million, no questions asked?
@Mickmc Eircode does not find “places” it finds “dwellings”. Specifically dwellings that can be billed & taxed!!
Okay, that’s a huge flaw. What happens when you need emergency services in the middle of a forest, on a mountain, in a field somewhere? Are you supposed to send them to your home address instead? Advise them of the last building you passed by? How could any TD think that Eircodes for buildings are better than GPS? If any lives are saved it’s obviously a postman avoiding being bitten at the wrong address.
This is a bit old but watch the reaction from boss of Capita Ireland (postcode licence holder) when asked how you will know what postcode area you are in. https://youtu.be/B6ZJFd-8074
Eircodes were set up to attach rsi numbers and taxes to individuals. What they wanted is to integrate it to google maps.
The whole safety thing is a red herring. The ambulances don’t use eircodes.
Very good get lost Eircodes, just when you think that the country and it’s politicians can’t get any worse you put up a little reminder about what the Labour party contributed to the last government and it’s continuing of patronage to its cronies.
@Al Ca, to be fair the first 3 characters of Eircode do mean something – they relate to an area, so won’t be ‘Donegal or Kerry’. The issue is with the following digits. As an exercise I took the postcode of a building in Citywest (next to my office) which ended in 1 I then searched the same Eircode above and below that i.e. ending 0 and 2 and found one was 5 minutes drive away in Kingswood and the other was 14 miles away heading to Blessington. So a wrong digit can be miles away – so much for saving lives. Also the Geodirectory used for Eircodes is useless. Urlingford, a lovely town in Kilkenny? Sorry Eircode says you now belong to Tipperary (in fact you are now a suburb of Thurles – 17kms away) Likewise Maynooth is now a suburb of Naas – 22kms away I found plenty of other examples. All this to suit An Post sorting offices? You don’t need to rewrite peoples addresses, the post code can identify the sorting office. @journal – While the HSE do not have information about which services used the Eircode to get to an address, calls directed to Emergency Services are recorded and it should be possible to identify how many (if any!) callers provided their Eircode (if there were none, then the Ministers claim is false).
I rang An Post last week to get an insurance quote. The very nice call centre person could not find my regular address on their system so I gave her the eircode. “I’m sorry but we use insurance data basses for insurance purposes not eircode. I’ll get back to you. Never got a call back.
I don’t think anyone cares weather or not it has saved lives, in that we presume something like this would maybe not everytime but in some rural areas of course it would speed up the response time. But I think they should explain how else they are used and for how much?
Naughton I call you a mistruth teller and a complete and utter spoofer.
I would love to call it a shocking once off but there are too many examples of complete waste from ff/fg gov’s with a heavy sprinkle of arrogance to brazen their stupidtiy out
ff and fg td’s are finishing each others sentences at this stage and call it opposition
Those who actually drive those big HSE fun buses with the flashy blue lights, the paramedics, have categorically said no, they do not use eircodes but have stressed that they do save lives.
@Get lost Eircode. Eircode finds every address in the country. Private residents and business. And if you owe a bill or tax what the problem? Are you tell me you should be exempt from paying them.
@Al Ca. What does IP address prove. You could have any amount of devices connected to different internet service providers. Anyway work away with the different identified. Sure it more craic.
EIRCODE is a PPS number for dwellings and should be reassigned as such. It is not a postcode and only covers a tiny fraction of Ireland i.e.those parts of Ireland with a roof . http://getlosteircodes.com/?p=157
mickmc…….your mistake is believing everyone else behaves like you.
Oh no you found me out now Ciaran, I mean Al Ca
You probably see reds under the bed too…..sigh. You are wrong.
Remember you must provide an address also when ringing emergency services.
Shush Al..don’t be talking sense will ya..
You my good man are the one that on here constantly spouting how the government are conspiring to get you and take your money . Pot and kettles and all that……
Well if it was you or a loved one , would you think twas worth it. They are a brilliant direction aid.
How does Eircode get your loved one out of a ditch?
Follow The Loc8 Debate at:
http://disloc8ed.com
Whatever about saving lives, it certainly lined a few pockets.
Big winner is An Post who will gain €22.3 million for NOT using it and for losing the postcode tender…
Ok factcheck. Does God exist? No evidence to back up the claim, no evidence to refute the claim.
Therefore, bollocks.
Lying politician is lying. FACT
I like your logic Dave
And there is a wealth of evidence against lying politicians.
Simple fact is that this declaration in the Dail was the DCENRs response to Eamon Ryan’s call on Today FM for Eircode to be redesigned. Remember Eamon Ryan started the postcode tender but the tender was changed by Pat Rabbitte to Labour build a database of billable addresses to facilitate Pat’s “Broadcasting Tax” as well as Irish Water.
So Naughtens declaration was yet another part of the tit for tat propaganda war.
Firemen say Eircode will cost lives, ambulance service management are told to say they support it.
FTAI say they won’t use it, Nightline say it’s a great idea and White cuts the ribbon on their new depot 6 months later.
An Post say they will use it in every single aspect of their operation, yet not a single postman or woman is equipped to use it.
Eamon Ryan says it must be re-designed, Denis Naughten says it is saving lives even thought it CANNOT be used for Road Traffic Accidents, farming accidents, forestry accidents, swimming accidents, mountaineering accidents unlike alternative codes like Loc8code, Gocode and OpenPostcode.
The code we got facilitates taxing & billing NOT PUBLIC SAFETY. Denis Naughten obviously has been misled by DCENR senior management because he can’t think for himself.
it is sad to say that most of these guys have proven themselves either habitual liers or they just waffle on to pass the time and get paid.
I have stopped believing anything that is said in Leinster house.
I actually quoted my eircode twice in last 6 weeks to UK companies who were sending me parcels. In both instances, the couriers phoned me for directions. Two different but well-established couriers.
Nice to hear someone is quoting it, unfortunately because most people aren’t putting it on the address, most people including the drivers aren’t sure what to do with it when it is there, as a courier I’ve seen it written on an envelope less than 10times this year , fact is anyone with a smartphone can use it to navigate you to the door. If only everyone were to start including it we could all benefit from it
Tens of thousands of buildings with no Eircode & codes pointing to wrong location.
@dave one big difference . Well there probably is evidence but they’re not going to give it to you.
Typical of this government. Making it up as they go along.
No data available, so Naughton was talking through his hat!
Reading between the lines, the HSE ain’t using it, because if it really was being used, and it was demonstrating a marked improvement, they’d be promoting the use of it.
Exactly…to gain their political masters approval.
Is Eircode available on Sat Nav yet.. if not its useless
This just made me laugh.Does anyone even use eircodes? Oh where do you live? Sure lemme just recite a useless made up letter and number combo that the government just introduced for no reason.
it would be easier to ask the ambulance dispatchers if *anyone* had entered any eircodes at all in the last year. like IW, recording the right data would justify the system, but the fact that the only potential user didn’t even record this says volumes.
Car crash stuff – another fine mess.
No Eircode is no use for car crashes, unless you crash into a house…
How have ambulances the capacity to use eircodes since February? I was under the impression that current sat nav systems didn’t use eircodes.
Ambulance service HQ uses Eircode in their CAD system.
Ambulances are not equipped with satnavs as far as I know…
And if you go to the eircode website on your phone and enter the eircode it provides a one click option called “directions” to send and open the exact position on your phones satnav
But Richard…it’s OK to do that one item at a time. But for a large amount of deliveries, parcels or letters cannot be sorted into groups without typing in every code……if the first three letters of the code actually pointed to an area on a map it would help logistics, but they don’t, ‘ABC’ can be in Donegal and but also in Kerry….it’s not map relevant so no person sorting letters or parcels can ever learn to sort using it.
@richard how do you do this with no signal?
I’m nearly 100% sure that HSE NAS do not supply or pay the bill for smartphones for their paramedics Richard, so why should they be using their personal phones and data that they pay for to use a system that is not being fully supported by their employers.
Plus you can only check 15 eircodes in a 24 hour period on the website more than that and you have to start paying for it
A member of government “Naughten” misleads the public again. What a surprise….
Didn’t take long now did it? Eircodes are positively dangerous for rural public safety so Naughten’s public bleatings about concern for rural Ireland can be taken with a massive pinch of salt.
Then again he is a blueshirt, will he return to the flock?
Eircode not save lives naughton on spin as usual
DCENR Civil servants lied about Eircode
Irish Times helped DCENR sabotage superior Loc8code with more lying about Eircode
Rabbitte lied about Eircode
White lied about Eircode
See a pattern?
No Denis Naughten is lying about Eircode.
Isn’t there something about misleading the Dail that might be consideted here….just asking?
Misleading the Dail doesn’t matter one iota.
Tell you what make a complaint to the Ceann Cormhairle and the Taoiseach about Naughten.
CC will say that he hasn’t the power to say if a TD/Minister is lying or to reprimand him if he / she is.
Taoiseach will send your complaint to the relevant minister which is Denis Naughten.
Eircodes are a pile of shi#e. Everyone knows it.
I think we should have a Denis naughten says stuff website. Like Denis naughten says that Xmas is popular with Buddhists or that cats see a thousand more colours than us but unfortunately there’s no way to prove this.
Coming Soon
The Loc8 Debate
http://www.disloc8ed.com/
So where have the emergency services most difficulty finding casualties? Houses / Businesses or locations that will never receive an Eircode Workshops, farm buildings, wind turbines, piers, jetties, fields, large fixed assets, lay-‐bys, points of interest, lanes, archaeological sites, roads, natural features, intersections, accident black-‐spots, pylons, public parks, motorways, antennae, wells, graveyards, pumping stations, viewing points, manholes/utility access points, car-‐parks, beaches, level-‐crossings, transformers, bridges, forests, bogs, lakes, playing pitches, cycle-‐tracks such as the Mayo Green-way, picnic areas, public toilets, walkways such as the Wild Atlantic Way.
Eircode is all about billing / taxing / creaming state funds for vested interests…
I live in a block with 4 apartments each has a different post code
Each is totally different to each other, as in for example one is abc 123. The next is jdf 821 and so on
The block itself doesn’t have a postcode
And all point to identical lat/long….. So it’s a billing & taxing code.
Post codes what a joke . The HSE Ambo don’t currently have sat nav .Your looking to get the correct address never mind the postcode.
If he made the claim he must have got it from somewhere otherwise it sounds to me like he just made it up out of thin air.
He pulled it from his arse
I love you xxx
Ah now DJ I am spoken for
But your gorgeous!!
@Aoife
Senior public servant: “Minister we need your backup with some Eircode matters, Eamon Ryan is saying Eircode needs a re-design while the departments position is that Eircode is already saving lives.
Minister Naughten: “But is it true can we prove it?
Senior Public Servant: “We don’t have to prove it is true minister, everyone else has to prove it is a lie”
If you need the answer as to who advised Minister Naughton (and the 2 Labour Ministers before) then you should ask Ass. Sec DCENR Patricia Cronin who has been responsible for Eircode and postcodes in several appointments since 2010. She was already accused by a prominent National industry body of misleading the Oireachtas on the subject of Eircodes. paricia.cronin@dcenr.gov.ie (but she generally does not answer phone calls, emails or letters on the subject even if they are from solicitors)
Follow The Loc8 Debate at:
http://dislo8ted.com
There was a perfectly good system in place within the transport industry that worked for years. Now we have the alphabet as a system. Fing joke. Should of used the system that was there and evolved it by the help of the transport industry
So the inference is FG saves lives. Thank you Enda et al. If only the dumb public could appreciate all you do to keep us safe and secure. The ambulance system couldn’t work without you, so efficient at getting us, just in time, to deposit us in a third world hospital system where we just might be lucky enough to get a trolley to pass away on.
Well said shakey :)
No evidence that eircodes save lives, but evidence that the government spout unsubstantiated rubbish. If our opposition dail members did their jobs, we wouldn’t have to rely on the journal fact check. Thank you Dan for the great work
Didn’t take him long to fall in line with fg talk,just tell the peasants it works.
This is simply not true Denis.
I’m always amused by this ‘saving lives’ business. As if anyone knows…
But it sounds so dramatic it must be true.
whats an eircode????
The probability of someone who is or has collapsed being awake to give the code I would say is fairly low, if you asked me my eirecode tomorrow and it was a life or death situation I still couldn’t remember it. In stressful situation it’s the last thing on anyone’s mind.
So we are all agreed then…except mickmc…that Rabbit,White and Naughten ripped us off on a scale similar to the E-Voting machine theft? In time to come…these thieves will be outed…
Naughty Naughton telling porkies
“Besides, every time I learn something new, it pushes some old stuff out of my brain.”
John Tierney was on the working group to set up Eircode….enough said.
In fairness the code Tierneys group recommended a useful code that would have satisfied transport industry & emergency services… But it was fooked out the Window by Rabbitte & White in favour of a billing & taxing database derived code with zero intelligence or ussble hierarchy.
If the Journal is to apply the same rules to its own reporting as it applies to the Minister’s claim, it will have to cease its activities. While I am a regular reader and contributor to its dialogue, I find it difficult to accept that it applies criteria to others to which it does not itself comply. Like Caesar’s wife, it must not alone be without fault, it must be seen to be so! Why do none of its own ‘journalists’ not find fault with its double standards?
Honestly I’ve found that the most biased and BS laden articles on this site (excluding opinion pieces obviously) are the ones simply copy-pasted from the AFP.
Anytime I have to give an area code when I purchase something online, ive always put down “none” & thats how my parcels arrive, full name address & then my code NONE!
To be fair I’ve had to call the ambulance out to our house twice this year and both times I using the eircode sped up the dispatchers understanding of our location. It’s a lot quicker than having to spell out every line of the address plus give detailed directions. I don’t know about saving lives but it definitely reduced my stress levels, I am rubbish at giving directions
Red thumbs for the truth
So many errors in this thread there’s no point in singling out one person. It’s “YOU’RE”, not “your”…”you’re”. It’s short for “you are”. “Your” is used to indicate ownership.
FACT HUNT
It might save lives if only people started including it with their addresses like most countries in the world, so frustrating as a courier to not see people using it and I regularly have to spend a lot of time doing in depth research on google for more details on an address instead of simply entering the persons 7digit postcode:(
We need a code good for public safety as well as deliveries to non Eircode locations. Eircode obviously useless for both…
So, in the absence of evidence to refute his claim, then the reverse is true too…. that the Minister had no evidence to support his assertion either……there’s a word for that you know. ….rhymes with ….Plier ..
While I would have preferred a system where there was an abbreviation for each county, town etc built in, over all it does what it should.
It’s a unique identifier which indicates the physical location of your property. Type your address into the website and it will show your exact location (and if it is wrong you can contact them and they’ll rectify it).
The random nature of the code allows many more to be given for a small area without running out which future proofs it.
It’s only a few numbers and letters. If you can remember a number plate you’ve no excuse not to memorise your Eircode.
It could have easily been done without this overly complex mess. The Dutch system uses a very simple 0000 AB setup where the 4 digits denote a specific area which are all relevant to the geographical area. For example a building in Rotterdam will always start with 30 while the following 2 digits representing the exact zone within the city. The letters refer to a grid within each zone which means only a few buildings will have the same code (or one if it’s an office or apartment complex). This is infinitely more useful and logical.
Querty Latitude/longitude abbreviated within a Loc8code don’t run out either. So what if you have to share one in an apartment block then apartment number is unique identifier. People are not using Eircode because the CANNOT relate to RANDOM
White Lie Busting For Dummies http://getlosteircodes.com/?p=126
I personally use latitude and longitude all the time, but the vast majority of people won’t bother their arses taking the time to understand it unfortunately and you can’t depend on everyone to accurately locate their property on a map or satellite image before generating a third-party code. Forget about many middle-aged people that aren’t tech-savvy and virtually all of the elderly. Remember how much of a big thing the switch to digital TV only was? Unfortunately a majority of middle-aged and elderly people are unwilling or unable to learn how to do simple things like connect a Saorview box to their old TV.
The Eircode is only a few characters long (easier than memorising a phone number) and the issue of getting it wrong by a couple of characters is alleviated by the fact that in an emergency you’re obviously going to give your full address and that will allow the responder to correct it and check if they have the correct code.
The only issues that need to be addressed are access to the database and compatibility with major websites. That can be fixed by providing couriers with access to it and websites including a text field on their shipping page specifically for an Eircode after you select Ireland from a drop-down menu etc.
Overall, it does what it should and everyone should use it.
Eircode was born out of corruption and protectionism It is not the smartest or best design we could have. In fact Eircode is a dumb VLOOKUP that is all it is, no embedded GPS information. Yo have to be assigned an Eircode and that could take ages.
We need to introduce another code for the public, tourists, business, emergency services and delivery companies that covers everywhere on Ireland, because Eircodes only cover places with a roof.
The public need & want want to go to places that have no Eircode (fishing spots, beaches etc), huge numbers of our historic sites (ruins, ogham stones, stone circles) have no Eircode, a large number of accidents and emergencies happen where there are no Eircode (RTAs, Mountaineering accidents, forestry accidents, heart attacks in parks etc), and companies deliver and do business where there is no Eircode (vets, building sites etc)
Non exhaustive list of places with no Eircode…EVERY ONE of these locations has a Loc8 code BTW
Farm buildings, wind turbines, piers, jetties, fields, large fixed assets, lay-‐bys, points of interest, lanes, archaeological sites, roads, natural features, intersections, accident black-‐spots, pylons, public parks, motorways, antennae, wells, graveyards, pumping stations, viewing points, manholes/utility access points, car-‐parks, beaches, level-‐crossings, transformers, bridges, forests, bogs, lakes, playing pitches, cycle-‐tracks such as the Mayo Green-way, picnic areas, public toilets, walkways such as the Wild Atlantic Way.
Eircode should be relegate to a billing/taxing code like a PPS for properties. That is what it was designed for as An Post wanted it useless for deliveries and Rabbitte / White wanted a billing database for Broadcasting Tax & Irish Water.
No it was
When you’re in the middle of nowhere rather than a property you can just give emergency services etc your latitude and longitude. There’s no need to generate a new code which just rehashes that information. Plus postcodes must be static. A very large property could have many different latitudes and longitudes based on the degree of accuracy used and that is unfit for a postcode system that is supposed to be a database of unchanging unique codes. So there’s nothing wrong with it.
Which latitude longitude format will you give them? Degrees Minutes Seconds, Degrees Decimal Minutes, Decimal Degrees??? North or West or + or Minus??? How many decimal points of accuracy.
How to you propose to train every Garda, Fireman, Ambulance driver, first responder, AA man to recognise, use and communicate the correct format without errors?
There is every need for a new code that makes Lat/Long less error prone, easier to understand, easier to communicate and can be printed on junctions, roadsigns, ESB poles, bridges etc.
Why must postcodes be static? And if they must be static and for example multiple Loc8 codes over a property what is wrong with a database of official Loc8 codes based upon GeoDirectory co-ordinates IDENTICAL to the Eircode co-ordinates just with GPS embedded in the code and with recognisable zones rather than a RANDOM VLOOKUP that people cannot relate to?
For what’s wrong with Eircode read here…
It’s easy to learn how latitude and longitude works and how to understand the difference between decimal degrees and minutes and seconds. It only takes a few minutes and then some practice at switching between the two and using them online etc. The fact that people aren’t taught about latitude and longitude coordinates in school is a failure of our education system. Besides that, any smartphone today has GPS (and sometimes GLONASS) capability built in. To address the issue of finding people in an emergency, what we need is an automatic emergency system where all phones will send their location to the emergency services. Latitude and longitude is in use all around the world. Loc8 is not. The actual numbers don’t matter as the phone would just send the information automatically. There are loads of apps that will automatically give your latitude and longitude in both formats so you can copy and paste them in a text or read them out over the phone, no prior knowledge required. Most emergencies calls are to actual dwellings rather than people away from any houses.
Postcodes must be static and official. People in other countries expect postcodes to be pre-assigned, officially recognised and unchanging for any individual address. If any country today was to implement a postcode system for the first time, they would also choose unique codes. Due to future proofing for more dwellings and the need to not have too many characters, the random number system was chosen. It’s understandable why they went for it.
In an emergency when someone is at a dwelling they’re going to give their full address with the Eircode which will correct errors in giving the code. For remote places like up a mountain GPS itself will do the job when the system I mentioned is in place. It’s not the job of a postcode to direct people to some mountain or something which just complicates things unnecessarily when GPS will do.
We were offered it for free by Garmin and Loc8. Who got the brown envelopes?
An Post…a €22.3 million brown envelope…
As a census enumerator this year one person in 500 could find their Eircode while I waited.
Question- have the Fire Brigade, Gardai, Caredoc the ability to read and use eircodes and do they use them . If we’re saving lives -do they use them or can they read them
Yes. They all use them
If this assertion cannot be verified by the Journal it would suggest that Denis Naughten was bluffing. Either you know something or you don’t; there is no middle ground. In such a case it’s a common ploy to make a statement and, rather than prove it, leave it up to others to disprove it. Studies have shown that anyone called Denis is just as likely to be lying through their teeth as anyone else.
DCENR had interesting dealings with another Denis two decades ago… Helped make the man so they did.
This advert was run just a few weeks after this Factcheck:
“Watchdog finds it can’t ban misleading Eircode adverts”
https://www.irishexaminer.com/ireland/watchdog-finds-it-cant-ban-misleading-eircode-adverts-435821.html
“In its response to the complaints, Eircode told the ASAI that relaying the postcode to dispatchers would save time as there would be no need for callers to give directions.
Despite this, the ASAI said there was no supporting evidence that suggested that using Eircode saved time.
In its ruling, the ASAI said it was “concerned” there was implication that having an Eircode was now necessary for callers to the National Ambulance Service.
It noted that the advert used the slogans “Do you have an Eircode? It will help us find you faster” and “Use Eircode and help the emergency service find you faster”; but said that it was not provided with any evidence to support these claims.
“The committee noted that the advertising had not made any specific claim in relation to ‘saving lives’, but were concerned that it was implied that if people in need of the service could be found faster, then there was the potential to save lives,” the draft ruling read.
This fact check thing was good enough during the election..Now it’s just click bait nonsense..xx love you.
A few years ago an ambulance was unable to locate my home. I had to leave my ill mother to drive around and find them. I think the use of eircodes in such situations in rural areas may be what the Minister is referring to.
Eircode useless unless ill person is in a house that receives post.
For the record: Rural areas have local Community First Responder schemes with volunteers carrying defibrillators. They receive calls from the Ambulance service if an ambulance is needed so that they can assist, and have a AED and trained personnel at the scene in minutes. An Eircode makes a huge difference. You can punch the code into your phone and be directed by Google maps straight to the door. Otherwise you just have a townland name and a lot of searching is needed. Just because the postman can deliver letters to a house without one means nothing. If a first responder gets to a call in 4 minutes as opposed to 15 it could make a huge difference. With our CFR group the eircode is the first thing you lpokk for when theres a call. That’s not to approve the way eircodes came about or to criticise Loc8. Just the facts.
Naughton does not care – he is paid to deceive
What a shock?
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