Tag Archives: Household Charge

Local authority staff have been warned that action may be taken against them if they refuse to call door to door to remind people that they owe the Household Charge.The idea for issuing the personal reminders was first raised by Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan at the weekend.


Dispute Over Household Charge Reminder Plan (RTE)

(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

Above: Hogan, Burton and protestors at the National Stadium on Saturday showing the number of people they claim won’t pay the Household charge.

Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan last night flatly contradicted a statement made earlier in the day by Minister for Social Protection Joan Burton.

She suggested at lunchtime yesterday that arrangements were being made to allow people to pay the household charge through their local post office.

Ms Burton also described next Saturday’s deadline for the payment of the charge as “ambitious” although she urged people to pay by the deadline.

Mr Hogan told The Irish Times later that there had been no change in the arrangements for payment of the charge and no change in the deadline.

*popcorn*

Ministers At Odds Over Payment Of Household Charge (Stephen Collins and Fiona Gartland, Irish Times)

Nearly 9,000 Payments Per Hour Needed To Meet Next Friday’s Deadline (Paul Melia, Irish Independent)

(Photocall Ireland)

It just gets better and better.

The Department of the Environment has said that post offices are not collecting payments for the household charge over the counter and no arrangements have been made to allow this.

Household Charge Cannot Be Paid At Post Office (RTE)

Varadkar: Majority Will Pay Household Charge When Fines Kick In (Breaking News)

(Sasko Lazarov/Photocall Ireland)

And outside?

‘It’s Not Our Debt’: Thousands Of Protesters Attend Anti-Household Charge Rally (Irish Examiner)

Earlier: “The Irish Have Woken Up.”

(Leon Farrell/Photocall Ireland)

From Paul Reynolds:


 

THE SECOND-LARGEST trade union in the State has urged its members not to pay the household charge.

Unite yesterday called on its 60,000 members not to register for the charge ahead of the March 31st deadline.

Unite was among several trade union groups which yesterday voiced their opposition to the €100 household charge.

And where do you stand, comrades?

Non-payment of household tax urged (Irish Times)

Unite stands firm against Household Charge (UnitetheUnion)

Yes, the Household Charge has made the New York Times:

Among them [not paying the Household Charge] are Gerry McKeever, 56, and his wife, Annie, who moved to the Dublin satellite town of Kildare during the decade-long boom that began in the mid-1990s known as the Celtic Tiger era, and who say their home is now worth less than half of the purchase price. They have two young children, high mortgage payments, child care costs and increasing fuel bills for the 70-mile round-trip commute to work in the capital.

“Many people are sitting tight rather than actively going out protesting,” he said. “This is sullen, peasant discontent in the finest Irish tradition. This is the revolt of the graybeards.”

Perhaps most significant is the coincidence that on the same day the household tax is due, Irish taxpayers will have to pay $4 billion to make good on some of the monumental debts run up by the failed Anglo Irish Bank.

 

Growing Antitax Movement Shows Irish Stoicism Wearing Thin (Douglas Dalby, New York Times)