Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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237. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the number of persons who are homeowners, landlords, tenants, and separately, social housing tenants who have registered for the water conservation grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28971/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The water conservation grant has been introduced to support households in conserving water in the home. It is being administered by the Department of Social Protection on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government.

To be eligible for the grant, a person must have registered their principal, private residence with Irish Water on or before 30 June 2015. As part of the application process applicants will be asked to confirm that this dwelling was their principal, private residence on 30 June 2015. In the circumstances, the type of detail requested by the Deputy is not necessary for the administration of the grant and consequently is not available to this Department.

Irish Water is finalising total figures for the number of registered persons who may be eligible to apply for the water conservation grant. Current figures from Irish Water suggest that approximately 1.3 million people may be eligible. These people will receive letters from this Department in August/September advising them of the application process.

Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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238. To ask the Minister for Social Protection the name of the company which was awarded the contract at tender stage to administer the water conservation grant; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [28972/15]

Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour)
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The Water Conservation Grant is being administered by the Department of Social Protection on behalf of the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government. The administration and payment of this grant is a significant project for the Department and requires the development and implementation of ICT systems, ICT infrastructure and various customer support and communications services. The procurement of services is essential to support the Department in providing a high quality service to the public in a cost effective and efficient manner and is governed by a comprehensive regulatory, legal and procedural framework.

Following a procurement process, a contract for the extension of payment functionality and development of a customer self-service web service for the Water Conservation Grant has been awarded to Bearing Point. It is intended that the ICT infrastructure put in place for this project will be reused for the provision of online services in the future.

A separate procurement has been held for the provision of customer support call centre services. Following evaluation of the tenders received a preferred bidder, Abtran, has been selected. It is expected that the contract for this service will be finalised shortly.

All costs in relation to the set-up and administration of the Water Conservation Grant will be recouped from the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government in line with existing procedures in this regard. Every effort is being made to maximise efficiencies and keep costs to the absolute minimum.