This article is from page 1 of the 2012-04-17 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 1 JPG
LOCAL services across the county are set to be slashed because of Clare’s response to the government demand for householders to pay the € 100 household charge.
Figures secured by The Cla re People this week have shown that less than 15,000 of those liable to pay the controversial property tax have done so.
This means that there are over 20,000 property owners in the county who have failed to register with Clare County Council or the Local Government Management Agency to pay the levy introduced by the Minister for the Environment, Phil Hogan.
These figures have come to light, after a leading member of Clare County Council released countywide payment figures for the household charge to members of Kilrush Town Council on Thursday night last.
“The most recent information available indicates that circa 37 per cent (leaving a shortfall of 63 per cent) of the estimated properties liable to the household charge in Clare have paid,” revealed Seamus Halpin, nearly two weeks after the government deadline for the payment of the charge passed.
“The department have yet to indicate the reduction if any in the Local Government Fund arising form the collection rate, however, if the household charge payments are not received the government will have less money to allocate for the delivery of local services,” Clare County Council’s administrative officer for finance added.
Mr Halpin made his comments in response to a notice of motion tabled by former Mayor of Kilrush, Cllr Tom Prendeville (FF) at the monthly meeting of Kilrush Town Council at which it was claimed that those who paid the € 100 charge are now being targetted for a raft of other payments.
“It is being used to get more money out of people,” said Cllr Paul Moroney (Ind).
“I met a woman in Knockerra, who told me she registered early for the charge and within a month had a number of visits to her house which is in off the road and very hard to find.
“The TV licence person came around, someone came to inspect her septic tank and she had a water metre put outside her door. They called because they now have her details,” he added.