AN OPEN breach between two senior Cabinet Ministers over the household charge has emerged following further confusion about how the €100 payment should be made.
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.
“People can access the forms for the payment in the post office but they cannot pay through the post office.
“They will have to send the payment through the post or pay online,” said Mr Hogan.
“The position has not changed. The deadline remains and the arrangements for payment remain the same.”
Ms Burton had said earlier on RTÉ Radio’s This Week programme that as far as she understood arrangements were being made to allow people to pay the charge at their local post office.
Registration forms for the payment are available at post offices throughout the country and people can fill out the forms and post them, along with a cheque or a postal order, in the post office to a PO box number in Dublin.
Payments can also be made over the counter at local authority offices around the country and can still be made over the internet.
The household charge is now a major issue of credibility for the Coalition with differences on the issue between Mr Hogan, the Fine Gael Minister responsible for the implementation of the charge, and Joan Burton, the Labour Minister who has been publicly at odds with Cabinet colleagues over a number of issues in recent weeks.
The Department of the Environment also announced yesterday that a mechanism to allow for the transfer of information from agencies including the Department of Social Protection, the ESB and the Revenue Commissioners to enable payment of the household charge will be in place by the end of the month.
A spokesman for the department said negotiations with the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner would be completed shortly and protocols to allow the transfer of data would be in place by the March 31st payment deadline.
So far, only 20 per cent or just over 328,000 households have paid, or registered to pay, the €100 household charge. Some €32.8 million has been collected, but the Government has forecast total revenue of €160 million.
About 3,000 protesters took part in a demonstration in the National Stadium in Dublin against the charge at the weekend organised by the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes. TDs including Joe Higgins and Clare Daly of the Socialist Party addressed the event. People Before Profit TDs Richard Boyd Barrett and Joan Collins were among those present.
A Department of the Environment spokesman said the department recognised people’s right to protest, but was still hopeful the majority of householders “who wish to be legally compliant and to avoid incurring unnecessary late payment fees and penalties” would register and pay before the closing date.
The spokesman also said there was a plan in place for what would happen after March 31st and local authorities would be “active on the ground”.
