Society pays for property charge defaults

Hundreds of community-run sports clubs around the country — as well as disabled people and disadvantaged area schemes — face losing local authority grants as the effects of the non-payment of the household charge take hold.

Galway County Council has sent letters to all its grant recipients informing them that payments have been suspended because 44% of householders have failed to pay the new home tax.

As politicians fêted Ireland’s Olympic heroes in Dublin, about 173 community groups in Galway — including many sports clubs — were told their grants were being withheld.