A total of 358,389 households had been registered to pay for the household charge by lunchtime today, bringing the amount received by Government to €35,838,900.
According to a spokesman for the Department of the Environment, 81 per cent of those registering have done so online.
The spokesman pointed out there were postal applications worth a further €2.5 million on hand to be processed. He said 30,188 properties had been registered since Friday evening.
The Government had originally forecast total revenue of €160 million. The deadline for payment is March 31st.
Meanwhile, an open breach between two senior Cabinet Ministers over the 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.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson on the environment and local government Niall Collins criticised the Government's handling of the issue.
“The hare-brained scheme to send local authority employees into their neighbours' homes is just further evidence of the woeful mishandling of this issue. With just days to go until the deadline, the Government’s attempts to scare people into paying the household charge have not worked and actually appear to have been completely counter-productive," Mr Collins said.
“Minister Phil Hogan's latest threat is a scare tactic too far. Given the Government’s complete failure to provide accurate information to the public about this charge and to respond to their concerns, the Minister would be better employed listening to people's feedback, acknowledging the mistakes that have been made to date and extending the deadline to allow for a proper information campaign.
Payments can also be made over the counter at local authority offices around the country and can still be made over the internet.
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.
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.
