66% comply with household charge

The highest household charge compliance rate is in Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown County Council.

Figures provided by Environment Minister Phil Hogan show the compliance rate at the Dublin local authority is 84%. Compliance at Kerry County Council and Mayo Council is also high at 72%. This compares to Co Donegal, which has the lowest compliance at 54%.

In a Dáil response to Fianna Fáil’s Barry Cowen, Mr Hogan gave figures showing that households had paid out €105m on the charge.

Out of 1.62m homes liable for the tax, 1m have paid up with waivers applied to 21,140. The overall compliance rate across the country is 66%.

Separate figures provided by Mr Hogan show the less controversial second home charge, officially the non-principal private residence tax, remains a lucrative income for the Government.

According to Mr Hogan, the tax has generated €288.8m since 2009.

The figures for this year show it has so far generated €67.3m, compared to €71.3m for 2011 and €74.5m for 2010. Dublin City Council is the largest generator of the tax with €12.4m taken in 2012.

The next nearest is Cork County Council, which generated €5.4m, while Fingal County Council generated €3.3m.

In response to a written Dáil question from Independent TD Shane Ross, who asked if rates would be introduced if both charges are abolished, Mr Hogan said: “An independently chaired inter-departmental expert group was established to consider the structures and modalities for an equitable local property tax to replace the household charge.

“The expert group’s terms of reference were to consider the design of a local property tax to be approved by Government, which is equitable and is informed by previous work and international experience.

“It would not be appropriate to comment on the content of the expert group’s report at this point, pending Government’s consideration of the report and the associated issues.

“It will then be a matter for the Government to decide on the exact details of implementation, including considerations related to the NPPR charge, taking into account the modalities involved.

“The Government has decided that the local property tax will be collected and administered by the Revenue Commissioners.”