1 million homes refuse to pay levy of €100

The Government has suffered an embarrassing rejection of what it says is a key condition of its agreement with the bailout troika, as almost 1m citizens are poised to defy the law and refuse to pay the €100 household charge.

On the eve of the deadline, Justice Minister Alan Shatter left the Government open to further accusations of arrogance by saying those opposed to the tax who planned to protest at the Fine Gael ard fheis today should “get a life”.

Yesterday, 55,536 homes signed up for the charge, bringing the number registered up to 522,893 out of 1.6m eligible to pay the charge from an estimated 1.8m households.

The Department of the Environment estimates a further 90,000 payments have been received by post but have not yet been processed. This would bring the final figure to about 613,000.

A group of nine socialist and independent TDs opposed to the charge believe thousands of people will protest at the Fine Gael gathering at the National Convention Centre today.

As he arrived at the Fine Gael ard fheis last night, Mr Shatter warned: “If you don’t pay it, you can be brought before the courts and fined.”

He strongly criticised Sinn Féin and Independent TDs who are opposingthe charge. “I think Sinn Féin and the promised protesters for tomorrow should just get a life.”

Taoiseach Enda Kenny refused to comment on the remarks by his minister, which risk increased resistance to the charge.

However, in his opening address to delegates, Mr Kenny urged people to “abide by the law of the land” and “make their contribution to the restoration of sound public finances”.

By close of business yesterday, €52.3m had been gathered from the charge — far short of the €160m the Government had hoped for.

Paul McSweeney, chief executive of the Local Government Agency, which has responsibility for collecting the tax, said authorities will be “commencing enforcement operations from Monday” and “giving people the opportunity to become compliant”.

Mr McSweeney said they would begin exchanging data from several state agencies to ring households and ask them to pay.

Some properties will slip through the net but “eventually they will be found out”, he said. “The state will get its money, somehow, some way.”

However, the office of the Data Protection Commissioner said no agreement had been reached so far in its talks with the Department of the Environment on a code of how such information should be gathered and used.

* Local authority offices will be open today to accept payments. Anybody having difficulty paying online can call 1890 357357.