Almost 6,000 pay household charge but protests continue

ALMOST 6,000 home-owners have rushed to pay the controversial household charge, despite claims from those opposed to it that as many as half of all people liable will refuse to pay up.

As of yesterday evening, the Household Charge Project Board said the charge had been paid in respect of 4,844 properties with quarterly direct debits set up for a further 1,200 homes.

The number of people paying rose rapidly during the course of yesterday, as the project board warned that various methods would be used to extract payment from those refusing to meet the March 31 deadline, including the use of information held by the ESB.