New ‘fiasco’ with Household Charge

ENVIRONMENT Minister Phil Hogan is coming under renewed fire this week after hundreds of people who had already paid the controversial €100 Household Charge received letters reminding them they may be liable for the tax and penalties.

 

Clare deputies and county councillors have been inundated with calls from angry constituents who received letters from Clare County Council at the request of the Local Government Management Agency (LGMA).

The council’s expenditure of over €15,000 sending out 33,000 letters to householders in Clare without the provision of a proper database by the LGMA has also been highlighted.

Public representatives have complained that people who have paid the charge and tried to contact a central bureau to confirm they had adhered to the law couldn’t get through or spent long periods on hold.

The Clare Champion has learned there has been very little change, if any, in the compliance rate in Clare over the past week, which now stands at about 70%, despite the distribution of the 33,000 letters.

Describing the latest debacle as a “total fiasco”, Mayor of Clare Councillor Pat Daly laid the blame squarely at the door of Minister Hogan for introducing the Household Charge without having a proper database in place.

“People are very distressed after getting letters for their husband or wife, who has been dead for years. No one knows who the 30% are in Clare who haven’t paid. Clare County Council hasn’t access to the database of those who haven’t paid.

“The council could have decided not to send out this letter but it was probably afraid the minister could introduce even more cuts if the authority refused.

“It is time that the minister brought the necessary agencies together and devised a proper database using the Census figures or the register of electors. It is not fair to blame this mess on the council, who were following instructions,” he said.

Clare County Council has confirmed it issued letters to householders on foot of a request from the LGMA.

“The letters issued are based on a database compiled by the LGMA. The LGMA has carried out a comparison between the data on the Property Registration Agency database and those that have registered and paid, or obtained a waiver, in relation to the Household Charge.

“The database of non-compliant householders has been compiled by the LGMA. Householders who have queries or who have already paid the charge and received a letter should contact the central bureau at Lo Call 1890 357357 or if calling outside Ireland, 00353 1 2224000,” they stated.

Minister Hogan told the Dáil there is no easy way of cross-referencing addresses with a number of agencies and noted all of the utility companies’ databases are available to the LGMA, albeit four months late.

He said local authorities should have screened these letters a little better to ensure people in estates who were exempt weren’t sent letters.

Because of the self-assessment nature of this charge, he argued it is necessary for people to ring the national bureau to confirm their payment to establish a more definitive and clear database.

Clare Government Deputies Michael McNamara, Pat Breen and Joe Carey have raised the issue with the minister. Deputy McNamara told the Dáil the method of collection is now making this charge even more unpopular, while Deputy Breen stressed it was very upsetting to receive letters for people who were deceased.

“There has been a lot of concern expressed to me that when a householder who is compliant with the Household Charge does not provide confirmation to the bureau that they have paid the charge, their household is recorded as unpaid. In the longer term, the fear is that the cost of administering the charge by LGMA will have increased significantly.”

“The backlash, which has arisen following the issuing of these letters, does little to support the local authority in their efforts to collect the charge.

“I cannot understand why the names and addresses of those who had already paid could not have been matched off by LGMA against the list of names and addresses on this database to make sure that there was no duplication before they sent the list to the council,” he said.

Deputy Carey, who also received one of these letters despite paying the charge last March, asked if detailed screening or cross-referencing took place prior to the letters being issued.

“The fear now is that further letters will be issued to householders, even though they have paid. I have made contact with the county manager’s office and will be seeking assurances that proper scrutiny, proper cross-referencing and assessment is given to any further correspondence, which will be issued by the council,” he said.

Councillor Pascal Fitzgerald, who paid the Household Charge last February, had two letters sent to his house in Ardnacrusha. The Labour councillor complained that some people in Westbury got letters, even though their estate is exempt from the charge. “It is time Minister Hogan sorted out this mess. Who drew up this database?” he asked.

Councillor Pat Hayes said the council was placed in a difficult position because if it didn’t send out the letter, further cuts could be imposed by the Environment Minister.

Councillor Pat Burke stressed it is important to get the database correct and said it is unfair to request people who had paid the Household Charge to ring a bureau in Dublin to confirm what they already knew.

Councillor Joe Cooney described the whole management of the charge as a “disgrace” and stressed it is totally wrong to be frightening people, particularly the elderly, with letters when they had already paid the charge. He acknowledged it is up to the Environment Minister to obtain a proper database so letters are only sent out to those who haven’t paid the levy.

Pat Flynn from Cahercalla Estate, Ennis, complained he paid the household charge but received a letter requiring him to supply the code that came with it. He wrote a letter in reply accusing the authorities of trying to get him to do their office work.

“It said in the letter that they can’t find a record of them having accepted my money but I looked it up and it was on April 25 this year that I paid it. It’s no wonder that this country is in the state it’s in; if people can’t do their job and they want me to supply the code that they supplied to me. They have it someplace.

“I’m very vexed because there’s going to be more taking off the ordinary person, while some people are being well paid to do a job and they’re not able to do it,” he said.