COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, February 09, 2015

QUESTION NO.15

QUESTION: Councillor K. Mahon

To ask the Chief Executive to report as to the number, and percentage, of Local Authority units that have been registered with Irish Water and the process by which they were registered?

REPLY:

The Council does not have access to the information to supply the number and percentage, of Local Authority units that have been registered with Irish Water

Irish Water has contacted all Local Authorities requesting a listing of all domestic properties in the ownership of the Local Authorities and associated tenant names in order that Irish Water can correspond with the tenants directly in respect of domestic water charges liability.

Irish Water are entitled to this information under section 26(1)(a) and section 26(5)(a) of the Water Services Act 2013 (the No.1 Act), which empowers Irish Water to request Local Authorities to provide such information as Irish Water may reasonably require to enable it to perform its functions under the Act.  The requested names are required by Irish Water to carry out its obligation under section 21 of the Water Services (No. 2) Act 2013 to charge occupiers for the provision of water services.   Section 26(3) of the Water Services (No. 1) Act 2013 obliges Local Authorities to comply with a request made pursuant to section 26.

Irish Water and Local Authorities are bound to comply with the Data Protection Acts.  Irish Water and Local Authorities are also required to take appropriate data protection measures pursuant to section 33.2 of the Service Level Agreements entered into with each local authority.  Access to Tenant Data within Irish Water will be restricted to those persons working on the Customer Registration and Billing Project