Sir, – I empathise with David Prowse’s situation in relation to the NPPR penalty charges (June 28th).
On foot of a recent e-mail from the NPPR authority, I went to the website to pay my charge for the coming year. I was surprised to see that I had neglected to pay the previous year’s charge of €200 and that a €20 per month penalty had accrued. I checked to see if I had received any previous communication from the NPPR; the last e-mail was 12 months previously alerting me to the charge.
While I fully accept that it was my responsibility to pay the charge; like David Prowse, I find it outrageous that there was no subsequent communication to say that my payment was overdue or that penalties were accruing. At what level of penalty accrual would it have been deemed worthy of a follow-up e-mail or letter? Having sent the e-mails alerting me to the charges being due, it is clear the NPPR had my contact details. – Yours, etc,
RONAN HAYES,
Haddington Road,
Dublin 4.