Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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977. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the measures that will be taken by Irish Water to ensure that customer data sent by the company outside the European Economic Area will comply with legislation of that jurisdiction. [40973/14]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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978. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if customer data sent outside the European Economic Area by Irish Water will have the standard of protection that would be expected of data held here. [40974/14]

Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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989. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the position regarding Irish Water customers who refuse to give details to Irish Water of their PPS number and so on; if their water will be cut off or reduced to a trickle. [41058/14]

Michael McNamara (Clare, Labour)
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1002. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the statutory provision that empowers Irish Water to request customers' personal public service numbers. [41232/14]

Robert Troy (Longford-Westmeath, Fianna Fail)
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1012. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government if he will reverse the requirement for customers to give their personal public service numbers to Irish Water; and if he will instruct Irish Water to delete all records of PPS numbers already received. [41351/14]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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1022. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the position regarding the retention of PPS numbers by Irish Water (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41491/14]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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1028. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the measures that have been taken by him and Irish Water to ensure the security of customers' personal data, especially the unauthorised release of data to third parties. [41581/14]

Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, Socialist Party)
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1029. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the measures that have been put in place to ensure that PPS numbers obtained by Irish Water will not be shared with any third parties. [41582/14]

Peter Mathews (Dublin South, Independent)
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1040. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the reasons PPS numbers are required for payment of water charges; if PPS numbers are protected under data protection legislation; if he is satisfied that PPS numbers will not be used by any third party; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41635/14]

Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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1043. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the State bodies and agencies with which Irish Water will share customer information; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [41775/14]

Clare Daly (Dublin North, United Left)
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1054. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government further to Parliamentary Question No. 574 of 21 October 2014, if he will indicate if personal public service numbers constitute part of the asset base of Irish Water. [41948/14]

Alan Kelly (Tipperary North, Labour)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 977, 978, 989, 1002, 1012, 1022, 1028, 1029, 1040, 1043 and 1054 together.

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

In advance of the introduction of domestic water charges, the Government made certain decisions on 6 May 2014 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. 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 Personal Public Services (PPS) numbers to authenticate the identity of a 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. The collection of PPS numbers allows Irish Water to confirm and validate the entitlement to allowances for each customer. This information will not be shared with any organisation other than the Department of Social Protection for the purpose of verification, to ensure that each household receives the allowances it is entitled to, be it the free allowance per household or any additional allowance for children at that address. It will also allow Irish Water to provide lower charges to owners who have unoccupied dwellings. I understand that Irish Water and the Department of Social Protection are developing arrangements governing the sharing of PPS information. Any such arrangements will be subject to data protection requirements.

With charges effective from 1 October 2014 Irish Water is in the process of compiling the relevant data to ensure that customers can be billed accurately based on the tariff structure approved by the CER. Irish Water has sent application packs to approximately 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. The application process will enable customers to confirm their details for billing and, by providing the relevant PPS numbers, claim the allowances that they are eligible for.

The CER has made a determination on th e water charges plan submitted to it by Irish Water, which sets out the position if customers do not validate their details. In these circumstances, a default unmetered charge of €424 per annum will apply, which does not include the free allowances. The relevant details of the determination are available on theCER website ().

Irish Water has an on - going engagement with the Office of the Data Protection Commission (DPC) and has advised my Department that it has been asked to provide clarity on some aspects of the legal language of its data protection notice as published on its website, .It has confirmed that this notice was, and is, fully compliant with data protection requirements. However, by providing additional clarity, it will re-assure customers that data is held securely, used properly and not shared with third parties, except where some minimal information needs to be provided in the context of the delivery of water services such as contractors repairing leaks.Any advice given to Irish Water from the DPC will be further incorporated into its data protection notice.

Irish Water has confirmed that its systems have undergone extensive independent quality assurance testing. In addition, the DPC has worked closely with Irish Water to agree the process for the capture, storage and usage of customer data. Furthermore, Irish Water has also confirmed that no data will be stored outside of the European Economic Area (EEA) . Irish Water has also confirmed that it w ill not sell any customer data and PPS numbers are not part of the asset base of the company.

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, e.g. ICT support for systems maintenance, and this will be done under full compliance with all data protection requirements.

Irish Water has established a dedicated team to deal with representations and queries from public representatives and is contacting all Oireachtas members to provide details of an improved level of service which it is aiming to provide. The team can be contacted via email to oireachtasmembers@water.ieor by telephone on a new dedicated number, 1890 5 78 578.