Confusion over numbers eligible for household tax
Even the organisation responsible for collecting the levy, the Local Government Management Agency, has admitted it does not know the precise figure, while the environment department says it is working on an estimate of just over 1.6m properties.
The true figure is politically significant as it has a major impact on the percentage of householders refusing to register for the charge.
Socialist TD and leading boycott campaigner Joe Higgins insists the real number of properties eligible is above 1.8m, according to the last census.
He has accused the Government of trying deliberately to mislead the public and underplay the real level of non-payment by sticking to the 1.6mfigure.
Such concerns have been backed up by neutral academics, who have expressed surprise that the Government cannot provide a more accurate figure.
Rob Kitchin, director of the national institute of regional and spatial analysis at NUI Maynooth, estimates the number eligible to be around the 1.72m mark.
“I think we can get nearer to it than the 200,000 margin at present; I think we could come within a few thousand,” he told RTÉ.
Mr Kitchen stated the census showed 1.99m properties in the State, and when the seven exemption categories, such as unfinished properties and HSE buildings, are removed from the total, it brings the figure down to close to the 1.72m level.
The biggest chunk of properties exempted are the 129,000 which are vested in local authorities.
Mr Higgins said census figures would indicate that 1.86m properties in the State would need to be registered for the charge — and that fact that only 829,000 had registered showed that fewer than half of those affected were complying with the Government’s demands. However, if the Department of the Environment’s estimate of just over 1.6m was used, then compliance had just about squeezed over the psychologically important benchmark of 50% registration.
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