Paudie Coffey (Waterford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter, in respect of which I am happy to clarify the position on behalf of the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Alan Kelly.

Under the Water Services Acts 2007 to 2013, Irish Water may request its customers and certain specified persons or bodies, including the Minister for Social Protection, to provide it with information in order that the company can perform its functions under the Acts. The Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 provides that Irish Water is responsible for public water services and can collect charges from its customers in receipt of water services provided by it. It also provides that responsibility for the independent economic regulation of the water sector is assigned to the Commission for Energy Regulation, CER, which has been given statutory responsibility for protecting the interests of customers of Irish Water.

The proposed approach to charging was outlined by Irish Water in a water charges plan that it submitted to the CER in line with the provisions of the Act. The CER recently held a public consultation process on this plan, which covered a range of issues relating to water charges and allowances. Yesterday the CER issued a determination on the water charges plan, details of which are available on its website. With charges effective from today, 1 October 2014, Irish Water is in the process of compiling the relevant data to ensure customers can be billed accurately based on the tariff structure approved yesterday by the CER.

Throughout September, Irish Water sent application packs to nearly 2 million households which refer to the effective charging date and the fact that billing for domestic customers in receipt of public water services will start in January 2015. Irish Water is in the final stages of issuing these packs. The application process will enable customers to confirm their details and to ensure that a correct and up-to-date database of customers exists. The pack is accompanied by a guide explaining why each piece of information is required. A media campaign has also been launched to emphasise the need to complete the application process by 31 October 2014.

On 6 May 2014, the Government made certain decisions relating to the structure of water charges including,inter alia, a free allowance per household and an additional free allowance for children on the same qualifying conditions as the child benefit payment from the Department of Social Protection. As these allowances are to be funded by Government, Irish Water needs to ensure it has the appropriate and sufficient information to reflect these entitlements. The personal public services, PPS, numbers will be used by Irish Water to validate that customers are entitled to any relevant water allowances. It is important to stress that the PPS information will only be shared with the Department of Social Protection and solely for this verification purpose. This will ensure that each household receives the free allowance to which it is entitled as well as any additional allowance for children in receipt of child benefit at that address. It will also facilitate Irish Water in providing reduced charges to owners who have unoccupied dwellings. Households who do not provide PPS numbers to establish eligibility will be billed a default charge which the CER has set. In the case of late validation, any relevant allowances will be backdated 60 days prior to the date of registration.

Irish Water is a specified body under the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, as amended by section 20 of the Social Welfare and Pensions Act 2014 and is therefore permitted to request PPS numbers to authenticate the identity of the person being provided with an allowance. Irish Water will treat applicants' personal data in accordance with the Data Protection Acts 1988 and 2003. In complying with these Acts, Irish Water must ensure that the data is only used for the purpose for which it was collected and must also ensure that any data collected is stored securely. Irish Water has confirmed that no data will be stored outside of the European Economic Area, and Irish Water will not be selling or trading any customer data. There may be limited instances where Irish Water might need to share information with third parties with whom it has service agreements for operational reasons, for example, instances where ICT support for systems maintenance is required, and this will be done under full compliance with all data protection requirements.

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