Cecilia Keaveney (Fianna Fail)

I thank the Minister for his response. I agree that the NPPR charge is an important funding mechanism. No one disagrees with that. The difficulty is that there is a seeming sleight of hand to do with the self-assessment aspect of the charge. Warnings are sent for all other taxes and charges. If local authorities can spend money reminding people of the charge after they have forgotten to pay it, why can they not spend it reminding them beforehand?

The Minister of State talked about efficient use of public resources. A local authority — I will not say which one — recently sent out notifications and has since been inundated with inquiries from people who are in a panic about the €60 charge. The person who should be dealing with it is on holidays. The response in the local authority has been manic, according to those I have spoken to, and this is generating a lot of work for all the people in that section. Surely if the local authority can remind someone of the charge three months after it is due, it could have reminded him or her three weeks before it became due. Will the Minister of State contact with local authorities and ask for a review of how the system is working?