A TOTAL of 363,478 households had paid the household charge by close of business yesterday evening, with just four days to go before the deadline for payment.
Minister for Children Frances Fitzgerald insisted “law-abiding citizens” would rush to pay the charge in the coming days. She denied the Government had failed to inform people adequately about the charge.
While the Government had originally forecast total revenue of €160 million, the amount collected as of 4pm yesterday evening stood at €36,347,800.
According to a spokesman for the Department of the Environment, 81 per cent of payments have been processed online. He said postal applications worth a further €2.5 million remained to be processed. A total of 35,277 properties had been registered since Friday evening, he added.
Late payment fees and interest will be incurred after the March 31st deadline passes.
Ms Fitzgerald predicted a last-minute surge in payments as the week progressed. “I think there will be a rush. I think many law-abiding citizens know that the money is needed and more people will clearly pay. Far more will pay.”
Rejecting claims the Government had not informed people about the charge, she said: “Everyone in the country knows about this charge. It’s got huge publicity.”
Ms Fitzgerald said Opposition politicians who opposed the household tax were in denial about the state of the economy.
“Clearly some politicians are encouraging people not to pay the tax, which is a denial of the reality in this country – that we have to move from transaction taxes.
“I believe the politicians who are encouraging this [non-payment] are in denial about the needs of our economy and it’s not good enough from them.”
Ms Fitzgerald said people should recognise that the money raised would be spent on their own local services. “Everybody wants local services. People want the parks. They want playgrounds. They want their footpaths. They want the local facilities to be developed and we need an income stream and this is going to be ring-fenced.”
A total of 8,545 properties have registered for a waiver. A total of €25,587,025 has been paid using cards online, while online direct debits accounted for €3,810,925.
Meanwhile, ministerial spokespeople moved to play down an open breach between two senior Ministers over the charge that emerged over the weekend.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, who has responsibility for introducing the charge, had on Sunday flatly contradicted a statement made earlier in the day by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton.
The Labour Minister had suggested on RTÉ radio that arrangements were being made to allow payment of the household charge through local post offices.
She also acknowledged that next Saturday’s deadline for registration and payment of the new charge had been “ambitious”.
Her spokeswoman yesterday said the Minister’s view was that “property owners must pay the €100 household charge by the deadline and details of the various payment channels are available from the Department of the Environment”.
Meanwhile, Mr Hogan yesterday said he had “no plans” to abolish any town councils in the proposed shake-up of local authority administration. The Association of Municipal Authorities and the Local Authority Members Association have claimed that several town councils are to be “axed” in cost-cutting measures.
Attending a Fine Gael reception in Carrickmacross, Co Monaghan, yesterday, Mr Hogan insisted he had not made any decision on the future of the town councils.
He was “working on a number of areas of reform in local government, but to date, no conclusion has been reached”. However, he said some political and local structures had been in operation since 1898 and he believed it was now time these were reviewed.
Paying: What to do
How to pay the household charge
* The deadline for payment is next Saturday, March 31st.
* Register online at householdcharge.ieand pay by credit or debit card. The direct debit option, which allowed people to pay in four equal instalments of €25, was only available until March 1st.
* Registration forms may be downloaded from householdcharge.ieand are also available from local authorities, libraries, Citizen Information Centres or by phoning a lo-call number, 1890 357357. These may be filled out and posted.
* Forms are also available in post offices, but An Post cannot accept the payment directly. It must still be paid by a €100 cheque, bank draft or postal order payable to “Household Charge”, posted to: Household Charge, PO Box 12168, Dublin 1.
* What information does the householdcharge.iewebsite seek when you register and set up an account?
* Name and email address, which are mandatory.
* Your phone number and mobile phone number – these can be left unfilled if the user ticks a box stating he/she does not want to receive text messages.
* Your personal public service number. You may still pay the charge online even if you do not have a PPS number, by checking a box that allows you to bypass that field.
* The address of property associated with the account and the correspondence address.
* What type of piped water supply connection the property has.
* Whether the property is a house, apartment or bedsit.
* The site allows a one-off payment of the €100. The direct debit option is now closed.
* Payment information such as credit card number is not stored by the householdcharge.iesite, but is processed by a third party, Realex Payments.
* The site is gathering information to process the household charge and for the “preparation and maintenance of a database of residential property in the State”.
* It specifically states that the data provided “may also be used in future years to notify property owners of potential liability for household charges”.
Household charge: The figures
363,478households have registerd to pay the charge as of close of business yesterday.
According to a spokesman for the Department of the Environment, 81 per cent of those registering have done so online.
The spokesman pointed out that there was a further €2.5 million-worth of postal applications on hand to be processed. He said 30,188 properties had been registered since Friday evening.