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Niall Carson
Irish Water managing director John Tierney.
# erase and rewind
We'll delete all those PPS numbers by January --- Irish Water chief
The ‘big sell’ of Irish Water is well under way… Ministers have also been out today talking up the “€1.15 a week” figure.
Updated at 10.40pm
IRISH WATER MANAGING Director John Tierney has said the company expects to have deleted all PPS records by the end of January.
Concerns were raised over the utility’s requirement for the ID numbers in recent months.
And in its revamped plan for the contentious semi-state, the Government announced yesterday that all PPS numbers already on record with it will be deleted.
Speaking to RTÉ News today, Tierney said that the initial requirement for PPS numbers had been “well intentioned”.
But he said they were already working with the Data Protection Commissioner on the plan to erase the data.
That should be done within 7 to 8 weeks, Tierney said.
He added that it would be a “big job of work”…
We already have submissions and responses from 870,000 households.
Courts
Elsewhere, the Irish Water boss said the company didn’t envision a situation “where we would have to be taking people to court”.
A system of late payment fines was announced yesterday as part of the coalition’s new plan.
But Tierney said:
The aim of Irish Water is to work with people so we’re not getting into penalties of any description.
“We want to work with them so that there are no add-on payments
“The net charge is €1.15 for a one person home,” per week, Tierney said, echoing talking points used by the Taoiseach and senior ministers since yesterday.
“It’s €3 for a 2 adult plus home.”
That is very very affordable by any measure or by any comparison to other countries around the world.
State of the Nation: What do people make of the new water charges package?
Poll: Will you pay your water charges?
