Only 12 per cent of homeowners have paid the household charge

Another week, another household charge story. Yes, we’re counting up the numbers once more. Despite the fact that the deadline for paying is looming ever closer (it’s March 31st, in case you were wondering…) it seems that only a tiny amount have coughed up the cash.

The Irish Sun reports it emerged yesterday that only a fraction of homeowners have paid the extremely controversial €100 household charge. According to reports, just 201,000 people out of an estimated 1.6million have parted ways with their money since the Government announced the new tax. That’s roughly around 12.5 per cent, if you want to be generous.

We bet the Government isn’t exactly thrilled about it, but then again, if enough people stick together and refuse to pay – what can they do really? Charge everyone? Arrest everyone? Then again, knowing our Government, that would probably seem like a good idea to them…

Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan, revealed the figures in the Dáil and he warned that homeowners who did not pay up before the March 31st deadline would face late penalty levies.

Apparently the Government’s plan is to add a fee of 10 per cent if the charge is paid within six months of the end of this month. However, this charge will continually be upped for the following months until the Government gets its money.

We don’t know about you, but it sort of reminds us of THIS. Disturbing, right?

It will be interesting to see if the numbers change the closer we get to March 31st…