Thursday, March 29, 2012
Taoiseach Enda Kenny says he expects people to “measure up”, “obey the law” and pay the €100 household charge.
With just 72 hours until the deadline passes for homeowners to register, Mr Kenny sent a message from Beijing that he expects the public to fork out. “The law is there. I expect that people will obey that law,” he said on the final day of his trade mission to China.
“I expect the people, as they always do in Ireland, to measure up here and come out in big numbers over the next few days and pay their charge, which is due.”
Householders have until the end of Saturday to register for the charge. But at the close of business yesterday only 426,599 of the1.6 million homes eligible had done so.
The Government hopes to raise €160m from the levy, but has so far taken in only €42.7m.
Environment Minister Phil Hogan also went on the airwaves to encourage people to pay and insisted there would be no extension to the deadline. He also criticised opposition TDs who have campaigned against the charge, accusing them of advocating lawbreaking.
Thousands of protesters packed the National Stadium last Saturday and a second huge protest is expected to be staged outside the Fine Gael Árd Fheis in Dublin this weekend.
A group of nine left-wing TDs, including People Before Profit’s Richard Boyd Barrett and Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins, have led the anti-household charge campaign.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin is proposing legislation to have the household charge reimbursed.
The party’s environment spokesman Brian Stanley said it would lobby for cross-party support to reverse the levy and have it reimbursed to those who have paid so far.
The bill will be tabled during private members’ time in June. But there is little prospect of it actually being passed and householders getting their money back, as the Government will use its comfortable majority in the Dáil to defeat the bill.
Ninety-five local authority offices around the country will open this Saturday to enable homeowners to pay the charge as the Government hopes for a badly-needed late surge of payments.