Household charge hit on council unclear until July

Head of Finance at Offaly County Council Declan Conlon has said this week he doesn't expect to know what the outcome of household charge payments will mean locally for another three months. Mr Conlon said no figure has been earmarked in the council budget as a direct result of household charge takings; it's just part of a sum of €12.15m Offaly County Council gets from the local government fund, which is made up of the household charge, motor tax and other monies. However he did encourage those who haven't yet paid the charge to do so "in order to ensure there won't be an affect on local services". The Offaly Independent was told this week that something in the region of 3,200 household charge payments have been received in total in council offices in Tullamore, Edenderry and Birr. The number of payments made online is as yet unknown, but it's estimated the approximately 24,000 households in the county are liable for the charge. "I don't think we're really going to know until July where we are," Mr Conlon said on Thursday. Thanking those who have paid in Offaly Mr Conlon said he is "very encouraged" by that. The finance chief also said he anticipates further payment of the charge and encourages it, even though penalties now apply for late payment. "This money is vital," he said. "The more people that pay and get their money in the better for us." Payments continue to be accepted at council offices in Tullamore, Edenderry and Birr as well as online. When questioned on the possibility of council staff having to go door to door for payments however Mr Conlon said the idea hasn't been proposed to the council at all. Figures at time of going to print yesterday (Thursday) showed a total of 886,537 properties registered for the charge nationwide, with 637,995 online payments processed. Fine Gael TD Marcella Corcoran Kennedy assured locals on Monday last that the fairest means of allocating funds raised by the household charge will be used by Environment, Community and Local Government Minister Phil Hogan. "The Environment Minister said over the weekend mechanisms that will incestivise local authorities to collect outstanding payments will be carefully examined," she said. "During this process he will look at the fairest way of allocating funds, take account of financial circumstances, the population in each area and the services provided by each local authority." She echoed Mr Conlon saying that the full extent of numbers who have paid the charge "will not be known for some time", but said Minister Hogan will address the situation as soon as all data has been collated. However local Fianna Fail and Sinn Fein TDs remain unconvinced. Sinn Fein's Brian Stanley described the charge as "an embarrassing fiasco" this week, while Barry Cowen said it was a mess from its beginning. "What Fine Gael and Labour should be doing is putting their hands up, admitting that they made a mistake, and extending the deadline to the end of September," Deputy Cowen said this week. "That gives them time to run a proper information campaign, allow people to pay in a variety of ways and to offer an option of paying by instalment." Deputy Cowen also called on Minister Hogan to clarify if he has plans to cut local services if the household charge is not collected from all households in the county. Deputy Stanley said he intends to introduce a bill during private members time in June, which will aim to repeal the household charge in its entirety and reimburse those who have already paid the charge.