Property Marking founder honoured for his novel idea

When Castletown Geoghegan man James O’Neill saw the technology used by Rolls Royce and British Aerospace to mark identifying numbers on aircraft parts, he realised that the same technology could be used to mark permanent identifiers on property so if the items were ever stolen or lost and later retrieved, gardaí would be able to return them to their owners.

That was seven years ago, and now, James, founder of Property Marking Ireland, was recognised for his pioneering work when his firm was named as winner of the Best Social Enterprise of the Year Award at the All-Ireland Community and Council Awards held in Cork.

Now living in Tipperary, James, who returned to education at the age of 40 to study community and rural development, and then a postgraduate qualification in entrepreneurship combined the knowledge gained from these studies to start Property Marking Ireland, a not-for-profit organisation.

“I remembered that everybody’s got an eircode, a unique identifier for your address. Then I found a piece of technology that has the ability, in tiny little dots, to put the eircode on your valuables without damaging them,” James told the Westmeath Examiner.

This property marking technology can be applied to a wide range of materials, including metal, plastic, and wood, making it suitable for bicycles, farm equipment, golf clubs, and construction tools.

Working in collaboration with An Garda Síochána, the initiative also places signage outside marked properties to deter potential criminals.

“It’s a combined strategy that has the biggest impact,” Mr O’Neill explained. “First, we mark the property. Then we put a sign outside your farm or your construction business, or whatever the case may be, to let the opportunistic thief or would-be criminal gangs know that ‘if you take this, you’re likely to be apprehended’.”

In the seven years since James set up Property Marking Ireland, the programme has expanded, and 23 local authorities – including Westmeath – are now participating.

This expansion has been driven by a structured approach in which councils purchase the marking machines and engage James’s organisation to provide training in their communities.

Under that model, communities receive training in small groups, three members from each participating organisation, ranging from Men’s and Women’s Sheds to Tidy Towns groups, cycling clubs, and sports associations such as the GAA and rugby clubs. The sessions, which typically last half a day, are conducted with the participation of local gardaí.

Once trained, community groups organise property marking days, during which residents can bring smaller personal items – such as bicycles, lawnmowers, and tools – to be marked free of charge or for a voluntary donation. Separately, a commercial service is available for larger property items, where the organisation directly marks valuables for farmers and construction businesses.

Mr O’Neill praised local efforts, particularly those of Andrew Slevin, who organised training sessions in Westmeath.

The training process equips participants with crime prevention skills and also fosters collaboration. “The fact that the community gardaí and these community groups come together for that half a day, they find loads of other inspiring stuff by just attending that meeting,” O’Neill said.

Property Marketing Ireland operates with a small but efficient team. “We have 2,000 gardaí trained on the programme, and more than 2,000 communities trained and delivering as well,” he said. “We’re a small team of three, but because of our collaborations, once they’re trained, they do the heavy lifting for us.”

The organisation is in a growth phase, and plans to expand the team in the near future.

Mr O’Neill’s innovative approach has even attracted international attention. “I got a phone call 10 months ago from the Californian police force,” he said. “They had seen my programme on the website and said, ‘Would you mind if we adopt exactly that crime prevention programme? We want to roll it out in California’.” The strategy has since been implemented there to combat catalytic converter theft.

Despite the international success, Mr O’Neill remains focused on making a difference in Ireland. “We have more than a million items marked now,” he said. “And older people, who might have been sceptical of eircodes before, are now using them regularly because of this initiative.”

• See propertymarking.ie or contact James O’Neill at james@propertymarking.ie.