McSweeney: Pay charge or street lights could be turned off

Street lights may need to be switched off and community-run sports clubs will no longer exist if people don't comply with the household charge.

That's the warning from the CEO of the Local Government Management Agency, Paul McSweeney.

The organisation, which is tasked with collecting the controversial €100 tax, says so far just 61% of all homeowners have paid the household charge - meaning there's around 700,000 people who have yet to register and pay.

Many county and city councils around the country say they will struggle to provide local services in their communities as their budgets have been cut and they're relying on income from the household charge.

Paul McSweeney says it's no exaggeration that many basic services like street lighting may need to be looked at to cut costs: "It is unfair but what we're talking about here are public goods, your street lighting, your parks.

"If there isn't enough money to be paid for it in the first place, they have to be curtailed which is why parks will be closed, mobile libraries won't be going out and we may have to start switching off street lights except for junctions. These are the inevitabilities of it."