Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I welcome the Minister, Deputy Hogan, to the House. I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this matter which concerns the payment of the household services charge. The main question I am asked by people who approach me on it is how they can make the payment. I hear two points from constituents. First, there is still confusion among many people as to whether they need to pay the charge. Second, the overwhelming majority of people who want to pay the charge are unsure about how to make the payment, which makes it more difficult for them than should be the case.

I have three suggestions to put to the Minister on this matter. In the legislation passed to set up this process I understand it was designated that each local authority had to have one office at which people could make the payment. For Dublin City Council that means that if people who do not have access to the Internet want to make the payment in person they must go all the way to Civic Offices in Wood Quay passing many city council offices on the way at which they cannot make the payment. I ask the Minister to find a way in whereby any local authority office can receive and process the payment. Many local authorities have decentralised their offices and facilities into communities and people have to leave their communities to make the payments in the respective headquarters of the local authority.

If somebody wants to pay their ESB bill or waste charges, and a major difficulty has arisen regarding the rollout of a new waste charge system in the Dublin City Council area, they can make the payment in their local post office. If we can put such a system in place for the payment of a waste charge surely we should be able to put one in place for the payment of the household services charge. That would allow people make the payment in their local post office or equivalent.

The third point people have put to me is the possibility of having the payment deducted, with their consent, from a pension payment. I accept that would be possible only with consent but there is the possibility in the future of a fine being deducted from somebody's pension or income. If people make the decision to have the charge deducted from their income from the State, we should facilitate that.

I emphasise the importance of this issue. My experience is that this charge will be paid by the overwhelming majority of people but many of them, particularly those who do not have access to the Internet, are finding it more difficult than it should be to make the payment. Given the sensitivity around this charge we should change the system in place to make it simpler for people to make the payment.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. To give him some background on it, the reason we are introducing this household charge is the requirement in the EU-IMF Programme of Financial Support for Ireland, which commits us to a property tax in 2012. It was not possible to do the more progressive fairer system on this occasion and therefore we had to bring in a modest charge initially in 2012 on a flat rate basis. It is the intention of the Government to agree shortly the terms of reference where we can draw up a more progressive and fairer system for the future.

There is a range of options available for persons to pay the household charge. As the Deputy mentioned, an on-line system is in place under the Local Government Management Agency to enable homeowners pay the household charge by credit or debit card or in four instalments by direct debit. In addition, homeowners can make payment by cheque, postal order, credit or debit card or in four instalments by direct debit by completing the mandate on the declaration form and posting it to Household Charge, PO Box 12168, Dublin 1.

A bureau is in place in the Local Government Management Agency to administer the charge on a shared service-agency basis for all local authorities. In addition, all county and city councils have been requested to have arrangements in place for persons to attend their principal offices to pay the household charge up to 31 March, 2012.

I take on board the suggestions made by Deputy Donohoe and I am prepared to examine how we can deal with major urban areas such as Dublin, to which he referred, and other cities such as Cork, Limerick, Galway and Waterford to allow us utilise area offices because of the devolution of administrative functions in the various local authority areas. We will contact the relevant local authorities and if they are in a position to process these payments in offices other than the principal offices I will ask them to make those arrangements.

We ran into some data protection difficulties, as the Deputy would be aware, regarding the ESB and An Post. We were anxious to have some transactions directly with An Post but it required a transaction charge in respect of each transaction which was not acceptable and, therefore, An Post, which was anxious for the business, did not engage commercially with the Department of the Environment, Community and Local Government to ensure it would be in a position to do that business. Notwithstanding that, we are prepared to enter into discussions with utility companies and with the Data Protection Commissioner to ensure we overcome any issues that may cause a problem.

The deduction of the charge at source, whether by the Revenue Commissioners or any other source of collection by the Department of Social Protection or whatever, will be considered in the context of rolling out a fully fledged and progressive property tax in 2013, 2014 and beyond.

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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I thank the Minister for his response and urge him not to under-estimate the level of confusion there is about how to pay the charge, particularly among people who do not have Internet access. The issue of how to make the payment is one that has been regularly raised with me. Because the legislation specifies a principal office in which this matter be handled, local authorities believe they are doing their job well if they have one office within their jurisdiction that provides for managing this charge. It was extraordinary to hear that An Post sought to make a profit from handling a transaction on behalf of the State when many other household transactions can be made and handled in the post office.

At the very least, we must deal with the position whereby people have to travel past city council community facilities and offices to go to a central place where they can pay the charge. That position needs to be changed before 31 March and then that change will need to be advertised.

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I will take on board the Deputy's suggestion. We will advertise proactively regarding the payment of the household charge in a few weeks time. A leaflet will be put through every door to remind people of their obligation to pay the charge as well as setting out where and how they can pay it.