Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will take the last point first. As the Senator is aware, the Government has announced a revised package regarding Irish Water. It is a much more modest and affordable system for water charges. It puts in place the potential for the vital investment that has to go into improving our water system, providing everybody with clean healthy water and providing for very significant capital investment for water treatment plants. I know many Senators are rightly very concerned about the environment. Raw sewage going into watercourses, rivers harbours and lakes is a national scandal. As Senators know, over the next ten years investment of approximately €10 billion is needed to address those issues. Irish Water affords a very good mechanism for doing that. Otherwise that necessary investment, as most Senators know, would need to come from education, health and other areas of expenditure, which are very dear to Senators' hearts.

Regarding the references to Irish Water and PPS numbers, with the new structure the PPS number is no longer required. It was only ever required for simple validation purposes, but that is no longer required and therefore it is not necessary to be there. The only time that householders will need to provide a PPS number is when and if they decide they wish to receive a water conservation grant, as is the case with all services from the Department of Social Protection and indeed with the Revenue Commissioners. As I am sure the Senator knows, a PPS number is required as the unique identifier for the person or household seeking a refund.

On a point of information-----