An Irish language version of the household charge legislation will be available next week, the language commissioner said today.
An Coimisinéir Teanga Seán Ó Cuirreáin was speaking after the High Court yesterday granted leave to challenge the charge because legislation underpinning it had not been published in Irish.
Mr Ó Cuirreáin said both English and Irish versions of the legislation were “with the printers” and would be available next week. The English language version only was available online and law allowed for the publication of acts in one language only on the internet “as an interim measure”, he said today.
The Department of the Environment said, despite the legal challenge, the Local Government (Household Charge) Act 2011 was valid and that people were legally obliged to register and pay the levy before March 31st. The deadline will not be extended, the department said in a statement.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan said last week that the levy had been paid in respect of more than 200,000 households, generating some €20 million, and that he anticipated the levy would eventually generate revenue of about €160 millionn when the levy was received from some 1.6 million eligible properties.
"Previous experience would indicate that many people will pay at the last minute, and we are confident that the Irish people being law-abiding citizens will register and pay the charge," the department's statement added.
Earlier, Fianna Fáil Environment Spokesperson Niall Collins said the legislation had potential to “unravel”
“I think the court challenge has thrown doubt and will throw confusion into people’s minds and I think that needs to be cleared up,” Mr Collins told reporters.
He said it was “very worrying” that less than 15 per cent of people had paid the £100 charge with a fortnight to the deadline.
This showed that “the Government has got this wrong,” and had not “recognised people’s inability to pay,” he said referring to lack of exemptions for unemployed people, pensioners and those in mortgage arrears.
Meanwhile a group of nine independent and United Left Alliance TDs said a “massive boycott” of the charge was evident from 1.5 million households which had not yet registered ahead of the March 31st deadline.
The lack of registration “vindicated” the stand taken by the TDs who have called for a mass boycott of the household charge, Socialist TD Joe Higgins said today.
Mr Higgins said there was a “fight ahead” but there was a “huge momentum” in the campaign, he said.
If the Government decided to prosecute those who boycotted the charge “the campaign will go in their thousands to the courts and make it a major political issue”, Mr Higgins said.
The group is demanding that the Government remove the legislation and the charge. The TDs making the call are United Left Alliance TDs Clare Daly, Joan Collins, Joe Higgins and Richard Boyd Barrett and independent TDs Thomas Pringle, Luke Flanagan, John Halligan, Mick Wallace and Seamus Healy.