THE NUMBER of properties registered for the household charge passed 300,000 yesterday, as Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore insisted there were no plans to extend the March 31st deadline for payment.
Some €30,017,200 in charges had been collected as of 4pm yesterday in respect of 300,172 homes. This represents about 18 per cent of the total number of households liable to pay the €100 levy. Ministers continued to express confidence that the numbers registering to pay would rise as the deadline approached.
“There are no plans to extend the deadline,” Mr Gilmore said, insisting the public had a choice of easy ways to pay the levy. “It can be paid online, it can be paid through local authorities, it can now be paid through a post office.”
It was an interim charge set by the Government pending the introduction of a property tax and it had to be paid, the Tánaiste said. He was speaking at the launch of a €2 million Africa Agri-Food Development Fund in Dublin.
He criticised those TDs and campaigners who are urging people not to make the payment, saying they were misleading the public.
The Irish Postmasters’ Union yesterday called on Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan to make arrangements for the 1,100 post offices across the country to accept cash payments. Payment may be made at present by sending the form to a post office box number with payment by cheque, postal order or bank draft.
“At this late stage the Minister’s plans for collecting the charge are in disarray and yet he is not allowing the public to pay through the most accessible means available to hundreds of thousands of people,” said IPU general secretary Brian McGann.
Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton said, meanwhile, she was confident of a very high level of registration in the final 10 days.
When asked whether the low level of uptake to date would send the Government back to the drawing board, Ms Burton said it was a matter for her colleague Mr Hogan.
She said the tax had only gotten widespread coverage in the last week or so. This would encourage more people to pay and this would be helped by Mr Hogan focusing on payment methods, particularly on methods to make payment easier for older people.
Ms Burton said the tax was part of the agreement with the troika of international bodies. It was the first element and would be replaced by a more comprehensive property tax. Countries all over the world had some form of a household charge, she said.
Ms Burton acknowledged that paying €100 was difficult for some people in the current situation.
“Equally we have given an undertaking to the people not to increase direct income tax. That is the trade-off.”