MORE THAN 30,000 properties have been registered to date for the new household charge, raising more than €3 million, according to the Department of the Environment.
The figures were confirmed as a number of Independent and Socialist TDs and councillors stepped up their campaign against the charge.
TDs Joe Higgins, Clare Daly, Joan Collins, Richard Boyd Barrett, John Lyons, Mick Wallace, Thomas Pringle and Séamus Healy, MEP Paul Murphy and councillors Ruth Coppinger and Ted Tynan attended a press conference in Dublin to launch a national hotline for their campaign against the household charge and water charge.
All have indicated they will not register to pay the €100 due by the end of March and they have asked the public who oppose it not to sign up.
Ms Coppinger said the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes phone line would be a way for people to make contact with the campaign and to have their queries dealt with. Meetings would be held in every county and in every major town, she said.
The aim was to build “mass non-registration” by March. “We call on people not to be bullied by the extraordinary fines and threats by the Government,” she added.
A stand could and “must” be taken.
The enabling legislation for the household charge provides that the Government may seek information from other bodies, such as the ESB, where there is failure to pay.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said he intends to introduce a system of attachment orders, which would allow the Government to deduct fines from salaries or social welfare payments.