Eircodes Developments in Local Authorities€¦ · Presentation Overview ... Contact Hugh Mangan at...

Formal Statistics Liaison Group (FSLG)8th Administrative Data Seminar

Eircodes Developments in Local Authorities

Vincent Molloy, Executive Engineer, Programme Management and Innovation,Local Government Management AgencyEmail: [email protected]

L I F F E Y S U I TE , AS HL I N G HOTE L , PAR KG ATE S TR E E T, D U B L I N 8, D 0 8 P 3 8NTHU RSDAY 5TH DECEMB ER 201 99 : 00 A. M. – 1 . 00 P. M.

mailto:[email protected]

Formal Statistics Liaison Group - 8th Administrative Data Seminar

Presentation Overview

• Before we start, what are Eircodes anyway ?

• Context, Challenges, Scope for Improvements & Benefits

• Response from sector - Local Authority Eircode Group (LAEG)

• National Initiative 1 - OSi Eircode API

• National Initiative 2 - Eircode Encoding Framework

• Case Studies from the Sector

• Questions & Answers


Before we start, what are Eircodes anyway ?

Ireland’s Postcode i.e. address identifier


Context:

Action 24 – Civil Service Reform Plan:

• Action Sponsors requested all public bodies should store &

integrate Eircodes as part of an address whenever it is

relevant to transactions between the PSB & their customer.

• Value of National Data Infrastructure was highlighted &

insights that can be extracted when individual data sources

are linked.

• Eircode API & OGP Eircode Encoding Framework are

promoted as tools for integrating Eircodes in all systems &

databases that collect address information.


Challenges:

• High percentage of non-unique addresses in a substantial number of Local Authorities.

• Validation of Existing Eircodes in LA Databases

• Need for improved Input & Ongoing Maintenance.

• GDPR compliance.


Scope for Improvements & the Benefits: • Evidence has shown that where Public Service

Bodies (PSB’s) have actively looked for Eircode in customer transactions, the coverage has increased substantially, i.e. ‘just ask’ approach.

• Increase Population of Eircodes in key Databases.

• Leverage benefit of an Eircode being a key identifier.

• Better reporting in local and national context, improve service delivery and aid better planning.


Response from Sector:

Local Authority Eircode Group (LAEG) members:

• Aoibheann Brangan (Dept of Communications, Climate Action & Environment)

• Ben King (Dept of Communications, Climate Action and Environment)

• Catherine Kavanagh (Wexford Co. Co.) - HIS Representative

• George Hussey (Department of Housing, Planning and Local Government)

• Helen Divilly (Louth Co. Co.) - GIS Representative

• John Dunne (Central Statistics Office)

• Liam Butler (Valuation Office)

• Linda Guthrie (Local Government Management Agency)

• Vincent Molloy (Local Government Management Agency)


Why was the Local Authority Eircode Group setup ?

• Circular 19/2017 (issued by DPER):

• All IT Systems & processes must include Eircodes in address field & Outgoing correspondence Eircoded.

• eGovernment, Civil Service Renewal Plan and Public Service ICT Strategy.

• Eircodes are a trusted identifier to link associated data.

• Accounting Officer of each organisation must report on progress being made implementing their Action Plans for integrating Eircodes as part of existing arrangements under Public Service ICT Strategy.


Local Authority Eircode Group (LAEG)

Duties & Responsibilities:

• Advise Local Government sector on implementation & promotion of recording & utilisation of Eircodes

• Oversee and guide implementation of Eircodes in sector -eGovernment Strategy 2017 –2020

• Encourage & promote integration of Eircodes in relevant internal & external systems in LA’s. Once incorporated, promote population of Eircodes in systems to realise benefits.

• Disseminate information on Eircodes to sector

• Encourage sharing & aggregation of data based on trusted location identifier i.e. Eircode

• Sub – group of the ICT Committee

• Met for First time in March 2018 and meets quarterly.


National Initiatives:

OSi Eircode API• An Eircode validation API developed by OSi.

• Free to use by Public Service Bodies.

Eircode Encoding Framework

• An OGP Framework where you can drawdown a service to match an Address to an Eircode and append an Eircode to an existing address in a database in which Eircodes are currently absent.


1st National Initiative -OSi Eircode API

• OSI acts as a sub-contractor under PSB’s Eircode licence.

• Can be integrated into existing & new address capture

system applications

• Enables users to append their Eircode to an address at

time of adding an address to system.

Application allows users to:• Validate addresses based on entry of a valid Eircode.

• Auto-population of address fields in Online forms when a user/member of public types in a valid Eircode;

• Input an address to obtain & validate an Eircode for that address.

• Allow predictive address text searches; • Provision of an Eircode & address based on entry of an XY

geo-coordinate;


OSi Eircode API


OSi Eircode API

• Provision of an OSi background mapping interface to allow users to search & identify properties from OSi base mapping. Once identified, end user will receive a valid Eircode &/or address returned for that property.

Especially needed for 35% non-unique addresses in state.

• Application, launched in May 2019, is now available for use across all PSBs & non-commercial State agencies at no extra cost if OSi acts as a sub- contractor under appropriate licence of PSB in question.


OSi Eircode API

For PSBs to engage with API without incurring a cost, they will need to have either a:• Corporate Eircode Address Database (ECAD) Licence or• National GeoDirectory + Eircode Address File (ECAF)

Single Fee Licence + Website Single Fee

https://geohive.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=17a4c267562e4a1595fb9f0533711716

Contact Hugh Mangan at OSi 01 8247516/ 087 4101820 [email protected]

https://geohive.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=17a4c267562e4a1595fb9f0533711716



2nd National Initiative -Eircode Encoding Framework

Aim: increase storage & utilisation of Eircodes across public

sector data holdings.

Department of Communications, Climate Action &

Environment (DCCAE) asked Office of Government

Procurement (OGP) to develop a multi-supplier framework

agreement for provision of Eircode address matching & bulk

encoding service on databases which are currently absent of

Eircodes.

These Eircodes are then uploaded back into existing

databases.



• Simplifies process of acquiring such services from fully accredited

suppliers.

• Designated commercial organisations with fixed pricing appointed to

each Lot, & each Lot can be availed of by PSB’s & non-commercial

state bodies via a ‘Direct Drawdown’ approach.

• The framework agreement allows Public Service Bodies to select

from four lots that appropriately matches the size of their data

holding being encoded, as follows:



Lot 1: Eircode Address Encoding Services - 0 to 100,000 database

entries;

Lot 2: Eircode Address Encoding Services - 100,001 to 500,000

database entries;

Lot 3: Eircode Address Encoding Services - 500,001 to 2,000,000

database entries; &

Lot 4: Eircode/Postcode Address Encoding Services - 2,000,001 to 10,000,000+ database entries.



• PSB’s can avail of service by logging on to ‘Buyer Zone’ on OGP

website (ogp.gov.ie), or contact Ciaran Bayly (Category

Manager) 076 -100 8116, [email protected]

• or OGP’s Client Services Team - 076 100 8000.



Case Studies from Local Government:1 - Mobile Solution for Electoral Register Field Officers

2 - Capturing Eircodes in iHouse to Map Housing Stock

3 - Private Rented Property Inspections

4 - Using Eircodes for the Vacant Housing Survey

5 - Mapping response to Storm Emma using Eircodes

6 - Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

7 – iHouse/Census 2016 – Data matching Exercise


1. Mobile Solution for Electoral Register Field Officers

Objective: Replace Paper Map Books with a mobile mapping application on tablets. Increase the quality of addresses in the iReg database by capturing Eircodes during the Fieldwork process.

Benefits/Efficiencies Outcome:Number of Electors now assigned an Eircode is 94%

Future plans:

The project is run every year with an improved address matching procedure each time.

Example provided by Paddy O’Flaherty (Wicklow Co. Co.)


2. Capturing Eircodes in iHouse to Map Housing Stock

Objective: Prior to the introduction of Eircodes, Louth Co. Co. had undertaken an exercise to map all iHouse properties and link these to the GeoDirectory. The objective of this was to improve the quality of addresses recorded for properties owned in iHouse.

Benefits/Efficiencies Outcome:

Updated all property addresses in iHouse with their correct address as per GeoDirectory.

They were then able to easily populate the database with Eircodes when there were released.


2. Capturing Eircodes in iHouse to Map Housing Stock• In Louth, a procedure was implemented where new properties added to

iHouse have their Eircode recorded.• An FME Script is scheduled to run nightly to extract the co-ordinates for

all new records with Eircodes, in order to keep the iHouse Map up-to-date.

• An additional FME Script checks for potential errors in Eircodes and Housing Admin Staff are e-mailed reports indicating where properties have no/invalid Eircode recorded.

Example provided by Helen Divilly (Louth Co. Co.).


3. Private Rented Property InspectionsObjective: Provide accurate means to find properties to be inspected using Eircodes.

How they did it: Both Authorities identified the need to complete the Eircoding of the Private Rented Tenancies Board database.When Fingal removed duplicates & non-Fingal records they arrived at 15,500 useable records.They are in the process of Eircoding the PRP data so they can identify which of the PRTB records have been sold.DLR have outsourced the Eircoding of the PRTB database for their area.

Example provided by Helen Bradley (Dun Laoghaire Rathdown Co. Co. & Justin Doyle (Fingal)


4. Using Eircodes for the Vacant Housing Survey

Objective:

• Identify vacant properties as part of the Rebuilding Ireland programme

• Locate and survey the property using mobile app

How it was done: • They undertook a desktop analysis, utilising CSO 2016 Census and

Eircodes to identify EDs with high vacant dwellings.• Used Spatial Analysis to investigate where in the County there

were a high volume of Social Housing Applications.

Example provided by Mark Mitchell (Wexford Co. Co.)



This allowed housing staff to –• Survey Houses identified

as vacant and evaluate if the dwelling had the potential to be purchased by the council

• The app was prepopulated with Eircode, Address, etc and a number of fields and drop downs for on site evaluation.

• The 2nd stage of the project involved populating the Eircode database into ESRI collector for onsite / mobile data capture.



• Visual representation of classified survey results for all housing staff


5. Mapping response to Storm Emma using Eircodes

Objective: Log and map emergency calls during Storm Emma (28th Feb 2018 –4th March 2018) directly to an interactive map based on Eircodes.



How it was done: • Eircodes requested by Call Centre – 80% of customers could

supply the Eircode• Captured the location of the incident on the mapping system by

searching for the Eircode quoted by the caller. • Filtered by municipal district and incident type • Data sent to the field staff in the relevant Municipal Districts

using html reports to their mobile every hour • Provided caller and incident details and a link to a Google map

location of the emergency incident allowing them to navigate

directly to a pinpoint location.



• Call centre logged calls directly into mapviewer using Eircode to find location


5. A mapping response to Storm Emma using Eircodes

Outcomes:• Communication between Council and the public using

Eircodes for emergency events saves time & resources.• GIS has a unique set of tools that will allow incident capture,

reporting, data dissemination. • Recognised the need to log calls spatially as they are made

to the Council, categorise and report to relevant Stakeholders.

• Review for continued development of GIS Emergency Response system.

Example provided by Frank Burke/Catherine Kavanagh (Wexford Co. Co.)


6. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Objective: Improve Integration of Eircodes into CRM - better service delivery


6. Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Benefits: • Locating incidents/cases as they as recorded on the system• Solves the problem of non-unique addresses• Improves quality of addresses• Understanding of what's going on and where• Operational time saving

• Redirect cases to correct staff based on location• Rapid data capture

• Improved Service and Planning when major events occur. • Improved Data broken down per Roads Engineering Areas,

Municipal Districts and Electoral Districts.


7. iHouse/Census 2016 – Data matching Exercise

Background:• iHouse implemented in Meath in 2015• Eircode field added to 3.2 implementation of iHouse and

rolled out in Meath in Sept 2015• Council owned properties populated with Eircodes in July

2017• Process put in place to ensure data integrity and high level

of Eircode population• Eircodes used to map and analyse housing stock in Meath

Example provided by Alison Boland (Meath Co. Co.)

Stages in Project

1

Initial Meeting

.

Data

Preparation

Section 31, Data

Analysis &

Development of

data dictionary

Section 30,

creating

snapshot of

data, Secure

data transfer

3

Results

4

Legal basis for data

sharing ,General Data

Protection Regulation

,Security implications

Identifying stakeholders

, Data quality, Scope of

project

2

Data Extraction

& Transfer

Data Quality

Report,Lessons

Learned



CSO

2016

Property

Applicant

Assoc.

Applicant

Service

Application

Eircode

DEASP

Revenue

P35 &

Form 11

iHouse

Data Analysis





Conclusion:• Maintenance of valid PPSNs and Eircodes key for linkage of

data with CSO.• More processes to be put in place to ensure data integrity.• iHouse is implemented widely across Local Authorities in

Ireland. This process could potentially be replicated in those LAs or approached at a National level.


Events & Plans

• Integration of OSi Eircode Lookup into existing LGMA and National Systems i.e. iReg, iHouse, iPlan, etc.

• A comprehensive Eircode Survey will issue in early 2020.

• An Eircode Co-ordinators event is planned for January 2020.

• Adoption of OSi Eircode API & Eircode Encoding Framework.

• Facilitate more projects like Meath iHouse/Census 2016 Data matching Exercise.


Eircodes Developments in Local Authorities

Thanks for your attention. Any Questions ?

Special Thanks to contributors and LAEG.

Eircodes Developments in Local Authorities€¦ · Presentation Overview ... Contact Hugh Mangan at...

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