What’s this? Sinn Fein plan to reimburse everyone the Household Charge?

With the deadline for the payment of the €100 Household Charge now just two days away the fiasco shows few signs of improving for the Government – and Sinn Fein have now thrown their thoughts into the mix by drawing up legislation that would reimburse the entire thing!

The party’s environment spokesman Brian Stanley revealed plans to table a Bill of legislation in the Dáil in June.

One thing that is absolutely certain is that Sinn Fein will not be in a position any time soon either to enact any such legislation, or to be able to persuade the rest of the Dáil to support them.

So there’s more than a hint of populist opportunism about the party’s plans, although given the scale of opposition to the Household Charge – in the letters’ pages of the papers, if not on the streets – the party’s never-to-be-realised plans will probably strike a chord with plenty of the public.

The Household Charge deadline passes at midnight on Saturday but Environment Minister Phil Hogan is facing ridicule in certain quarters due to the poor uptake to date – by Wednesday evening less than a third of the 1.6 million homes in Ireland had paid the levy.

One letters’ page wag in the Metro Herald this morning has an innovative idea too. Signed Mr Cranky, he wrote, “Not paying the household charge is actually the most patriotic thing you can do, because once the deadline passes we’ll start being fined and end up paying even more...”

He has a point too.