ANALYSIS:The modest nature of the charge may militate against the campaign, writes STEPHEN COLLINS
THE ATTEMPT to promote a national boycott of the €100 household charge represents a return to tried and trusted tactics by a handful of left-wing TDs. Back in the 1980s when the economy was last in trouble Joe Higgins was one of the leaders of a campaign which succeeded for a time in derailing an attempt by a Fine Gael-Labour government to introduce local water charges.
They returned to the fray in the 1990s in a campaign to promote non-payment of water and bin charges. That campaign paved the way for Higgins’s ultimately successful campaign to be elected to the Dáil.
However, the charges campaign ultimately ended in failure as local councils enforced the measure and a majority of citizens either came around to the principle that local services were worth paying for or that the charges could not be avoided.
Now as the Government takes the first step towards a property tax by introducing an interim charge, Mr Higgins and his allies are back calling for another boycott. They are clearly hoping to generate such a level of non-payment that the scheme will founder and with it the plan to introduce a more meaningful property tax over time.
Whether they will succeed only time will tel,l but the very modest nature of the charge at just €100 may militate against the success of their campaign.
Up to 11 TDs have said they will personally refuse to pay the €100 household charge but many ordinary citizens may not be willing to take the risk of late payment penalties and fines for such a relatively paltry sum.
The success in collecting the €200 per house charge on non-principal residences indicates a greater willingness on the part of many citizens to pay a modest property charge rather than risk the much greater penalties and fines that may ensue if they don’t pay. While the charge is based on self-assessment Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan made it clear in the Dáil while introducing the legislation on the issue during the week that the authorities have a number of ways of checking who has paid and who has not.
The legislation makes provision for a data exchange between local authorities and the Private Residential Tenancies Board, the ESB and the Revenue Commissioners. “This data should assist local authorities to identify properties liable for the charge,” said Mr Hogan, who pointed out that there would be penalties for late payment and a €2,500 fine for non-payment.
It will be up to people who are residential property owners to pay the charge by the end of next March to the Local Government Management Agency. An online system is being developed to allow people to pay over the internet by credit or debit card or they will be able to pay through the post by cheque or postal order. A majority of property owners in the country will be liable to pay the €100 charge and it is expected to raise €160 million.
Pointing out that the introduction of a property tax was part of the bailout package for the country, the Minister told the Dáil that internationally local services were administered by local authorities and financed by local service charges.
The Minister’s strictures didn’t stop the criticism from the left-wing TDs about the unfairness of a tax that applied equally to all regardless of the size of their homes.
The €100 charge is an interim measure on the way to a graduated property tax but the sooner the Government gets on with the necessary work to devise that comprehensive scheme the better as there is no argument about the need for a property tax.