A JUNIOR MINISTER has said the Government needs to stop and “take stock” of the household charge situation before taking any further action.
Róisín Shortall, Minister of State at the Department of Health, acknowledged that “mistakes were made” in the application of the charge.
Just over 800,000 households registered and paid the charge before the deadline at midnight on Saturday. This represents around half the total number of households in the State.
There was speculation over the weekend that local authorities which collected the charge from more households could be rewarded with a greater share of the proceeds.
But Shortall told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland that the Government should pause before making more decisions.
There’s a need now to take stock, to see where people haven’t been making the payment, and why they haven’t been making the payment [...] I think we need to see where mistakes were made and how we can improve compliance with this charge.
Meanwhile Thomas Pringle, independent TD for Donegal South West and a campaigner against the charge, said he wasn’t surprised at the suggestion that areas where fewer households paid could see less funding as a result.
“We’re used to getting less anyway, so it wouldn’t surprise me that the Government would do this,” he told Morning Ireland.
He said the campaign against the charge would continue, and called for environment minister Phil Hogan to abandon the charge – saying all who have already paid it could be refunded.
“He could refund the money to them. He was quick enough to set up a system to get the money off them,” Pringle said.
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