Household Charge reminders 'not the job of council workers'

The vice president of the Dublin Council of Trade Unions Mick O'Reilly has said that its not the job of local authority workers to pursue people for the Household Charge.

The Government is considering using council workers to go door-to-door issuing reminders to people to pay the charge, which is due by this Saturday, March 31.

"I do not think it is the job of local authority workers to engage in a propaganda exercise in favour of payment or otherwise," he said.

"It's not their role - that's the role of the Fine Gael party or the Coalition, if they want to do it.

"I believe workers have the right to exercise their conscience and say: I'm not going to do that'."

Chief executive of the Local Government Management Agency, Paul McSweeney, said that staff who refuse to do so could face action, however.

The Campaign Against Household & Water Taxes stated that ordering local authority workers to "knock on people's doors" would be "the totally outside the terms and conditions of council workers and would place council staff in a very difficult situation."

Figures show that only around 20% of properties have registered and paid the €100 fee, out of the 1.6 million homes eligible to do so.