If you are selling to retail customers, you DO NOT want to be VAT registered, as you will simply have to suffer the VAT yourself.
Unless your income is expected to be over the threshold (€37,500) you are not required to Register for VAT.
Give your suppliers your PPS Number. This is also your tax registration number, and should be fine for the suppliers. They will not know whether it is a VAT number or not as it will pass any check they perform, because it is a valid tax reg number.