Some 30,101 properties have so far been registered for the new household charge, raising a total of over €3 million, the Department of the Environment said today.
The figures were confirmed even as a number of independent and Socialist TDs and councillors stepped up their campaign against the charge.
TDs Joe Higgins, Clare Daly, Joan Collins, Richard Boyd Barrett, John Lyons, Mick Wallace, Thomas Pringle, Seamus Healy, Paul Murphy MEP and councillors Ruth Coppinger and Ted Tynan attended a press conference in Dublin to launch a national telephone ‘hotline’ for their campaign against the household charge and water charges.
All have indicated they will not register to pay the €100 due by the end of March and they have asked members of the public who oppose it not to sign up.
Ms Coppinger said the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes phone line would be a way for people around the country to make contact with the campaign and to have their queries dealt with. It would also help link them to their own local campaigns. Meetings would be held in every county and in every major town, she said.
The aim was to build "mass non-registration" by March.
"We call on people not to be bullied by the extraordinary fines and threats by the Government.” She said a stand could and "must" be taken. The household charge was simply "another austerity measure" that would benefit local authorities "in no way at all".
Ms Coppinger said mass non-registration could make the threats of fines and of deductions from salaries and welfare payments "completely inoperable".
"If, for example, one million refused to register for this tax, that would be a powerful message of solidarity to everybody that they are not alone. It would create huge political pressure on the Government and it would force them to consider a repeal of this tax and to go back to the drawing board and to make the rich pay their fair share for a change."
The enabling legislation for the household charge provides that the Government may seek information from other bodies, such as the ESB, where someone fails to pay.
March 31st is the deadline, after which date a series of incremental penalties will be applied for late payment.
Minister for Justice Alan Shatter has said he intends to introduce a system of attachment orders, which would allow the Government to deduct fines from salaries or social welfare payments.
Ms Coppinger said today there was “no way” the charge could be deducted from wages or pensions or from welfare payments or anywhere else.
“No such legislation exists to allow the Government to do that.” If legislation was introduced by the end of March, as had been mooted, it would only apply to collecting the fines for non-payment. These would have to be pursued through the courts, she said.
Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan has welcomed the figures for registrations and for payment of the household charge, claiming it is a sign that citizens are eager to pay a contribution towards local services such as libraries and fire services.