Can Irish Water ask for PPS Numbers ?

Updated Nov 2014 – The  use of PPS numbers is limited by legislation to certain government departments such as Revenue and Social Protection as well as other “public bodies” such as PTRB and The Pensions Board.
Irish Water was also added to that list in the Summer of 2014   (Full List Here)

Changes to the legislation were made in July 2014 this year that allowed Irish Water to request and use the PPS numbers of customers.  The changes were  contained in the SOCIAL WELFARE AND PENSIONS BILL 2014 – which was published in May and was passed in the Dail and enacted on 17th July 2014.

After some protests – the government decided in November 2014 to remove the need for Irish Water to ask for PPS numbers. The legislation has yet to be updated. (Jan 2015) – but Irish Water will be removed from the list of bodies approved to use PPS numbers in early 2015.

The main reason for allowing Irish Water to originally request PPS numbers was so that they could validate the awarding of the free water allowances as required by the government. The water charges were going to involve a “free” allowance for each household and  a free allowance for each child in a household.
The November changes mean that there is no longer a free allowance for a household – so no PPS number is needed for that.  The child water allowance  is being granted “on trust” and PPS numbers will not be used to verify it.

The changes to the rules were agreed by the Dail in December 2014.

The first household water bills are now due to go out in April  2015 and will cover usage from October to December 2014. More here about How Much You Can Expect to Pay for Water

 What Happens if You Don’t Provide PPS Numbers ?

If householders do not supply any  PPS number – Irish Water will charge unmetered homes the assessed charges but without the free household allowance – i.e.  an extra  €146.40 a year on top. See Assessed Charges Here

Metered  households that don’t supply PPS numbers will be charged as per the metered  rates – but they will not be given any free allowances for children or for the household.

The free household water allowance is  30,000 litres  a year and is  worth upto €146.40 a year per household. The childrens water allowance of 21,000 litres   is worth upto €102 per child per year.

There are some people who seem to think that Irish Water is not owned by the State – but it is fully state owned.   More about Irish Water Ownership Here