TÁNAISTE EAMON Gilmore again insisted there would be no extension of this Saturday’s household charge payment deadline.

“The best advice anybody can give to households is that the charge must be paid, before the deadline of March 31st,” he said.

Repeating that the charge would be replaced by a property tax, he said it would not have been possible to introduce it this year because of the preparatory work required to establish the basis on which it would be charged.

Mr Gilmore acknowledged there had been difficulties associated with people making arrangements to pay the charge. “It must also be said that nobody likes paying a tax or charge, particularly if it is new,” he added.

Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin said the project had been a debacle, and had been rightly described in a number of a newspaper editorials as a “fiasco”.

He said Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan had steadfastly refused to extend the deadline, even though just 23 per cent of the 1.8 million people who were obliged to register had done so.

Mr Martin said the charge’s credibility had been undermined. “Does the Tánaiste really believe there will be such a rush to comply with the requirement to pay the charge and that up to 1.5 million people will register to do so before next Saturday?” he asked.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said it was very clear, four days before the deadline, that most citizens rejected the financial and legal threats and the Government’s moral blackmail. He urged abandonment of the charge and introduction of a €100,000 cap on public sector wages. This would raise €265 million – €100 million more than was envisaged to accrue from the charge, he said.

Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said the Mahon tribunal report had enormously strengthened “the boycott of the regressive household tax’’. He asked whether Mr Gilmore understood “that a fully fledged revolt of people power is under way”