Council dismisses An Post figures

COUNCIL officials moved to allay concerns the elected members had in relation to An Post’s ‘Address Point’ system which allows homeless people to list their local post office as their address.

The issue was raised by Cllr Jim Codd who pointed out that 104 people in Co Wexford were currently availing of this service. As the Aontú councillor saw it, this was a damning indictment of the model county. ‘As a council, we need to wake up and take our responsibilities in relation to homelessness seriously,’ he said. ‘We’re busy patting ourselves on the backs about other things, but we’re the fifth worst in the country when it comes to this. Enough of the self praise. We need to go out and sort this and find these people who are homeless rather than waiting for them to drag themselves in here.’

Returning to the topic of the An Post Address Point service, Acting Director of Services Carolyn Godkin pointed out that anyone could register for the service and list their local Post Office as their address, regardless of if they’re homeless or not.

‘Anyone can register for it,’ she explained. ‘Not everyone registered on the Address Point system will be homeless. Currently only two people engaging with our homelessness services are using the Address Point system.’

Cllr Davy Hynes said that he couldn’t understand why someone would want to use the service if they already had an address.

‘Well, people could possibly use it if they regularly had packages coming to the house when they’re at work for example,’ Ms Godkin explained.

Head of Communications at the Council, David Minogue did a bit of research himself on the system.

‘I myself keyed in an address and made up a name and I had set up an address point at my local post office within ten minutes,’ he said. ‘In addition to this, it’s not possible to de-register once you’ve registered and if you want to move from Enniscorthy Post Office to New Ross Post Office for example, you have to set up a whole new account. It can’t be amended, so it creates a duplicate. Really, it’s just not a reliable barometer for homelessness in the county.’