merrion street

At the close of business yesterday in excess of 800,000 households had registered and paid the charge. The Minister today thanked all those householders who had carried out their patriotic duty and paid the charge.

As I have said previously this money will be used to fund vital local services in your local areas. The more that is paid and collected the better the quality of services to be provided locally. The Minister and the Department would like to once again appeal to people who have not yet paid the charge to do so as soon as possible.

I know that Irish people have had a difficult time time of it over the last few years and, in spite of that 800,000 have registered and paid the charge. They understand the need to pay for local services and, by paying the Household Charge, they have made their valuable contribution to the continuation of essential services at the local level. I thank them for this.

The LGMA have said that they still have sacks of mail to open and process and they are expecting a massive influx of postal applications throughout next week. Until the current backlog and postal applications are finalised we will not have the final compliance figures. That could be a couple of weeks.

The EU/IMF Programme of Financial Support committed us to the introduction of a property tax in 2012. The Household Charge is an interim measure and I will introduce a comprehensive and equitable valuation-based property tax as soon as I possibly can. We have achieved our Programme targets and we need to continue on this path to enhance our international reputation.

We are on the road to economic recovery. This Government has made the tough decisions that will get us there. It is not easy but at sometime in the future we will able to appreciate the personal sacrifices when our economy recovers. Nobody wants the imposition of new taxes or charges and I would have preferred not to have had to introduce this charge. However, the principle of the Household Charge is very important. We are one of the last countries in Europe not to pay for essential local services through a locally–based tax. The tax base in Ireland is being broadened through the introduction of the Household Charge and this will serve to move the focus away from taxing people’s work which will in turn support employment generation.

In concluding the Minister said:

In spite of the opposition to the charge the majority of householder have the paid the charge and I am appealing to local authorities to be businesslike in collecting the outstanding charges and I'm examining the principle of better rewarding those LAs that pull out all the stops to collect the charge.