Limerick City and County Council (Register of Users)

Updated: April 2019

Does Limerick City and County Council use the PPS Number at present?

Yes.

For what purpose(s)?

Financial Services

• Accounts Payable -PPSN is requested as part of the supplier set-up procedure and inputted to the financial management system (Agresso) when setting up a supplier where payment is to an individual who is not registered for VAT. This is required in order to have a unique identifier.
• NPPR - PPSN are requested in the registration / payment process for the Non Principal Private Residence tax due for the years 2009 to 2013. This is required in order to have a unique identifier.
• Motor Tax - PPSN is required for refund applications. In order to process an application for a refund on a tax disc (e.g. vehicle is scrapped as a result of a car accident – and there is more than 3 months tax remaining on the disc) Accounts Payable ask Motor Tax to ensure the applicant has provided a Bank Header (BIC and IBAN) and also their PPSN.

For first time applications to tax a vehicle at the “Goods” rate, Motor Tax requires proof that the applicant qualifies. This involves the applicant submitting certain revenue documentation that contains VAT and/or PPSN. There is also a “Goods Declaration Form” that needs to be completed by the applicant in the presence of a Garda and this requires the applicant to enter his/her PPSN and /or VAT number on the form depending on the circumstances.

• Housing Loans - Credit Checks and monthly submissions to the Central Credit Registry. It is one of the unique identifier fields to confirm a borrower’s credit history. On rare occasions, housing loans also use the number when corresponding with An Post Household Budget Services. This number is the unique identifier for Household Budget accounts.
• Agresso Support (Financial Management System) -All suppliers are required to submit VAT numbers or PPSN for Revenue reporting.

All Housing Assistance Payment Shared Services Centre customers have their PPSN held as a relation on the customer master file in Limerick City and County Council’s Financial Management System.

Non Principal Private Residence customers have their PPSN retained in Agresso as it is required for the national recording of NPPR data.

Loans customers have their PPSN recorded in the loan master file on Agresso.

Limerick Enterprise Office (LEO)

As part of the grant process LEO pay out to approved businesses. The LEO have to validate that the employee/s concerned are properly registered and are not also in receipt of any payment from the Department of Social Protection that they are not entitled to. LEO request the number from the new employee who gives the office written permission to do this check with the Department of Social Protection.

Travel and Transportation Strategy/Environmental Strategy

• Insurance - Limerick City and County Council look for PPSN when notified of a personal injury claim. Primarily, for identification purposes and to determine if we have a previous claim from the same individual. PPSN are not always provided but as the process moves along they are normally contained on the injuries board application which Limerick City and County Council are copied on. The Finance Department of Limerick City and County Council has also instructed the Claim’s Section to request PPSN for material damage claim settlements.

Water Services

• Well Grants - PPSN are requested and are required to complete the recoupment for DoHP&LG.
• Lead Replacement Grants - Lead Replacement Grants – PPSN are on the proof of Income document (P21 or Notice of Assessment) submitted by the applicant and are also on the Property Tax Document submitted for proof of property ownership, a cross check is completed on the two documents.

Mid West Road Design Office

PPSN are used in the set up of suppliers for payments to landowners for compensation, land purchase, ground investigations etc

Community

PPSN are used in the provision of the following services/programmes:-

• Healthy Limerick- Not client PPSN, but PPSN for staff of funded programmes were necessary for two of the actions funded by 2017-2018 Healthy Ireland funding, as the backup documentation for the financial report had to show how the funding was used and managed.
• Bin Waiver Applications - to confirm the social welfare payment type applicants are in receipt of.
• Burial grounds - for setting up supplier numbers for new caretakers.
• Limerick City and County Council are the Lead Financial Partner in the delivery of the Social Inclusion and Community Activation Programme. The Local Community Development Committee is managing the SICAP programme at a local level. Following a public procurement process the Programme Implementers delivering the SICAP Programme 2018-2022 in Limerick are: West Limerick Resources, Ballyhoura Development & Paul Partnership. As part of applying for such supports applicants are required to supply PPS numbers to the three lots.

Arts

The Limerick City & County Council supplier set-up form requires PPSN where appropriate. Completed supplier set-up forms are forwarded to the Accounts Payable Department in order for payments to be made to suppliers and grants issued.

Regeneration

PPSN collection and use in Regeneration relates to social housing on the iHouse system.

Housing Development

The Housing Development Section currently look for PPSN as part of the Long Term Leasing form. This form is a pre-determined form issued by the Housing Agency and the purpose of the PPSN is to check tax clearance on Revenue’s website ROS.ie These details are kept on file as they form part of the application/lease agreement. The long term leasing forms are completed by the applicants but are not sent to any external body, the Housing Agency is an external body.

PPSN are also required as part of Supplier Set Up Forms for the Finance Department.

Operation and Maintenance Services

• To process refunds in the case of Material Damage Claims (this is a finance requirement). PPSN are also requested when a personal injury claim is submitted to assist in the identification of a claimant, Section 13 of the Social Welfare & Pensions Act 2013 obliges all indemnifiers to obtain a Recoverable Benefits Certificate (‘RBA Cert’) from the Dept. of Social Protection & submit same with details including a Claimant’s PPSN before resolving a personal injury claim.
• The PPSN is part of the housing grant application form & is used to set up the grant applicant on the Council’s Financial Management System.
• PPSN are required as part of the Casual Trading application process.
• PPSN are required for Halting Site Bay Deposit Refunds.
• PPSN are used in relation to grants for the elderly and disabled. The request for PPSN is standard on the Council application form.
• If we are refunding money to road users for damaged tyres due to potholes, etc., The Finance Department look for PPSN details as part of their supplier set-up.

Planning and Environmental Changes

• PPSN are used for processing Septic Tank Grant Applications and for processing refunds and witness expenses.
• On the planning side they use PPSN for issuing refunds, finance requirements.

Veterinary Services

• PPSN is used on the horse control release form as a unique identifier to identify the horse owner from other persons with the same name residing at the same address, or at separate addresses e.g. grandfather, father and son.
• Processing of any refund, it is a requirement on the Accounts Payable refund form that a PPSN is stated.

Corporate Services

• Higher Education Grants: Limerick City and County Council process a small number of active accounts under HEG’s. As part of the student Grant Renewal Form PPSN are required.
• The Health & Safety Training Unit receive and forward Construction Skills Certification Scheme renewal/replacement forms quoting PPSN to Solas.

HR Services

• Payroll - PPSN are the link to Revenue for downloading employees tax certs i.e. P2cs. PPSN are used in conjunction with the computer integrated shared system CORE (core hr, core personnel, core time) for purposes of providing information to My Pay, Revenue Commissioners, Department of Social Protection and the Central Statistics Office.

Superannuation

• PPSN are maintained on the Superannuation Electronic Register.

Customer Services

Customer Services use PPSN to verify customers on ihouse re: queries. This is done on behalf of Housing Support Services.

Design and Delivery Services

PPSN are used in the processing of House Improvement Grants for both private applicants and Local Authority tenants.

Property Services Department

PPSN are required on Accounts Payable’s Supplier Set Up form.

HAP Shared Services Unit

• To confirm identity of HAP Tenant (National).
• To access HAP API (Department of Social Protection System) to correlate and display information regarding housing assistance payment applications and individual’s details returned from the Department of Social Protection.
• To confirm identity of HAP Landlord/Nominated Agent (National).
• To verify tax compliance.

Does your organisation exchange the PPSN with any external body? If so please name the relevant bodies and state the purpose(s) of the exchange?

• Limerick Enterprise Office- Exchange PPSN with the Department of Social Protection for checking and confirmation of the person’s status and sign off.
• Community - Healthy Limerick - PPSN are shared with Pobal
• Operation & Maintenance Services (Central Services) - All communications in connection with personal injury claims are copied to Irish Public Bodies

Operations & Maintenance Services

• The DoHPLG is notified about each new grant approval, the form which is sent out by the Department to local authorities looks for the PPSN details of each approved applicant
• When the Council has approved a housing grant application, the applicants details are sent to the DoHPLG as part of the recoupment process as the DoHPLG fund 80% or 90% of grants dependent on the type of grant approved
• Revenue Commissioners – Annual return required by Revenue on licences granted during the year
• Revenue Commissioners – To ensure proper record maintenance, when obtaining Tax Clearance Details, PPSN is entered onto the Revenue Site.

Corporate Services

The Health & Safety Training Unit receive and forward Construction Skills Certification Scheme renewal/replacement forms quoting PPSN to SOLAS.

HR Services

Payroll - PPSN is the link to Revenue for downloading employees tax certs i.e. P2cs.

PPSN are used in conjunction with the computer integrated shared system CORE (core hr, core personnel, core time) for purposes of providing information to My Pay, Revenue Commissioners, Department of Social Protection and the Central Statistics Office.

Finance Services

• Accounts Payable - Where a supplier is not registered for VAT, the PPSN is included in the annual return to Revenue of annual payments where the total exceeds €1,000
• NPPR - All NPPR registrations are entered on the NPPR Bureau database either on line by the property owner or from a registration form submitted to the NPPR section of Limerick City & County Council
• Housing Loans - PPSN are shared with the Central Credit Register (CCR) in order to comply with the statutory requirement to issue monthly reports

The Revenue Commissioners, particularly for the purpose of confirming and applying the correct tax relief at source for the borrowers on their loan instalment

PPSN is quoted on returns issued to the Department of the Environment for the claims for the subsidies given to borrowers under the Affordable Housing Scheme and Shared Ownership Rental Scheme

*HAP Shared Services Unit

• The Residential Tenancies Act- provides for reciprocal data exchange between the RTB, local authorities and the Minister for Employment Affairs and Social Protection. The Residential Tenancies Board (RTB) provide this information twice a year to the Local Authorities and the Department of Social Protection. This information goes directly to the housing section in the Local Authority. The HAPSSC report to the RTB on a quarterly basis using a sugar customer relations management system report transferred through a RTB secure email
• Revenue – Information is reported annually in the annual revenue return on all payments to landlords, this is extracted from the Agresso Financial Management System. Payments for the deduction of non – resident landlords are made annually which also includes personal data, this is carried out by Accounts Payable. The information is extracted daily from Revenue Online Services which is automated electronically. Information is also manually inputted by staff to ROS
• Department of Social Protection – To ensure Rent Supplement for a HAP tenant is ceased

Payroll

• Payroll - exchange the PPSN with Revenue, on salary certs for mortgage applications and on social welfare forms. Any forms completed on behalf of employees in many cases require the PPSN to be completed e.g. AVC forms, loss of earning forms for solicitors etc
• PPSN - used in conjunction with the computer integrated shared system CORE for purposes of providing information to My Pay, Revenue Commissioners, Department of Social Protection and the Central Statistics Office.

Does your Organisation have any other plans involving the use of PPS Numbers?

Yes

HR Services - Superannuation

If an employee is due a refund of superannuation contributions, there is an automatic 20% taken off for taxation. This 20% is then remitted to Revenue.

Prior to 2018, Limerick City and County Council would have periodically transferred the taxation deducted via Supplier on the Agresso system. Revenue would have been informed of the transfer and sent a list of the employees involved. The list would include details of the gross refund with the breakdown of the sum refunded to the employee and the total tax deducted. For identification purposes, the PPSN would be included.

The Council was informed by Revenue that from 2018 onward there was no need to include the list of the payments to Revenue, but the local authority was asked to keep a list, both for audit purposes and for reference should Revenue have any queries about an employee. Currently, such taxation payments are transferred to Revenue by Payroll

There is a duty to ensure compliance with the principles of processing personal data, which are set out in Article 5(1) and 5(2) of the GDPR. These principles are summarised as follows:-

1. Process it lawfully, fairly, and in a transparent manner;

2. Collect it only for one or more specified, explicit and legitimate purposes, and do not otherwise use it in a way that is incompatible with those purposes;

3. Ensure it is adequate, relevant and limited to what is necessary for the purpose it is processed;

4. Keep it accurate and up-to-date and erase or rectify any inaccurate data without delay;

5. Where it is kept in a way that allows you to identify who the data is about, retain it for no longer than is necessary;

6. Keep it secure by using appropriate technical and/or organisational security measures;

7. Be able to demonstrate your compliance with the above principles; and

8. Respond to requests by individuals seeking to exercise their data protection rights (for example the right of access

Have you measures in place to ensure that the Public Service Identity data you hold/collect whether in electronic or written format is in line with the GDPR Principles described above?

Yes, the Council has a range of physical and electronic measures/systems in place to ensure that the PPSN we collect whether in electronic or written format is in line with the above. All records are kept secure by each respective Department. Electronic systems are accessible only by authorised users. PPSN data is processed and accessible only for the stated purposes