Minister for Social and Family affairs Mary Hanafin has asked local authorities to be "sympathetic" to people on social welfare when setting refuse and water charges.
But she said Government could not interfere with local authority's right to set charges, although she hoped for better co-ordination between councils.
"A lot of the local authorities have a waiver system and they include maybe not all people on social welfare but they do certainly support people who are totally dependent on social welfare particularly pensioners. I would ask them (local authorities) to be sympathetic to that," said Ms Hanafin at the launch of the Irish programme for the 2010 year for combating poverty and social exclusion.
Ms Hanafin was responding to questions about the range of new charges that consumers will face following the application of VAT to services provider by public bodies. From July 1st, VAT will apply to a range of services, including landfill and recycling services, as well as leisure activities. Water will remain exempt from the application of VAT but anti-poverty groups and some politicians fear the proposed imposition of charges could have a devastating affect on social welfare recipients.
Joe Higgins MEP strongly criticised the Government's plan to introduce water charges yesterday, which he said would fleece taxpayers for €1 billion. He said a new forum would prepare for a new anti-water charges campaign.
Ms Hanafin said the Government could not introduce a specific relief scheme for social welfare recipients regarding different local authority charges. "It is for local authorities that independently have responsibility for that," she said.
But she called for more co-ordination between authorities on the issue of charges.
"There isn't a mechanism whereby each local authority can do the same thing but I would hope we would get better co-ordination. At the moment you have different refuse rates between Dublin City Council , Dún Laoghaire and Dublin south and you have private collectors. So I don't see why there should be better co-ordination at a regional level," said Ms Hanafin.
In a speech at the launch of the 2010 EU year for combating poverty and social exclusion, Ms Hanafin said the immediate challenge for the Government was to maintain progress made in recent years in tackling poverty. "The Government is determined to achieve the elimination of poverty. Restoring economic growth and sustaining high levels of employment are the first essential steps to achieve that," she said.