No deadline extension for direct debit payment of Household Charge

The Environment Minister has said there will be no extension to the deadline for people to sign up to pay the new Household Charge by direct debit.

The deadline is midnight tonight, but there were problems with the website yesterday, because of routine maintainence.

Almost 142,000 properties were registered by yesterday evening, with 10,000d registering yesterday alone.

Phil Hogan has said people who want to pay by direct debit have had plenty of time to do so and everyone else has until the end of March.