More time to pay The blunders shaming Big Phil Hogan
BLUNT- SPEAKING Phil Hogan has seen his reputation badly tarnished by a litany of astonishing blunders connected to the household charge, culminating in suggestions that unwilling council staff would be sent knocking on doors to get families to pay up – a move that was dubbed ‘Big Phil’s bullying tactics’, by the Opposition. Errors include: ÷DELIVERY OF LEAFLETS CITYPOST was awarded the contract to deliver explanatory leaflets, but despite assurances from the department last month that nearly all 2million had been given to households, many began complaining that they had not arrived.
The Irish Daily Mail revealed that Dublin company Wood Printcraft, tasked with printing the leaflets, had gone into receivership. Astonishingly, despite the eventual cost to taxpayers, Citypost refused to say how many leaflets it took for delivery or how many it sent out. The company also refused to discuss concerns that it was unable to deliver to all rural areas.
This led to even more confusion; at one point, the department stated that ALL leaflets had been delivered, but a week later changed the wording to state that it had been told by Citypost that all ‘deliveries are completed in all areas of the State’.
By the first week in March, an agreement was in place for An Post to come on board – at first to stock registration forms in post offices. ÷PAYMENT THE deadline by which people could register to pay by direct debit passed on February 29. However, as this information was contained in the leaflet that many did not receive, they were not aware of the early deadline.
An Post had offered a number of packages to the Government. These included simply printing and delivering the leaflets, and an offer to take payment over the counter in post offices around the country. But the offers were rejected. Indeed, there was no tendering process. Instead, householders were told they could pay online, at their council office or by postal order. But many, particularly the elderly, found the process difficult – one pensioner told the Mail how she had been sent home again to get her PPS number, and a number of councils said they cannot accept the €100 charge. ÷DATA COMMISSIONER THE Government threatened to track down non-compliant householders by checking their utility bills. This alarmed Data Commissioner Billy Hawkes who warned against it. His office is also investigating three separate complaints about the household charge website. ÷MIXED MESSAGES FROM CABINET THERE was further confusion when senior ministers contradicted each other over how to pay the charge. The Labour Tánaiste Éamon Gilmore and Social Protection Minister Joan Burton suggested arrangements were being made to allow payment through l ocal post offices. However, for Fine Gael, Minister Hogan flatly contradicted their statements, stating that there had been no change in the arrangements for payment of the charge.
The confusion began last Wednesday when, Mr Gilmore announced that paying through your local post office was possible. However, an hour later it was clarified on the One O’clock News on RTÉ radio that this was incorrect. Despite this, Miss Burton still insisted, on Sunday, that plans were being made for payment through the post office. ÷AN POST IT HAD been suggested that it might be too expensive for the Government to let An Post collect the charge, with claims made that it would charge between €3 and €12 for the service. However, the Mail also disclosed that when it initially tendered to collect the tax, it said it would only charge €1 to for each charge.
The Local Government Management Agency has said one of the reasons An Post was not used was because it does not have a complete list of national addresses. However, it appears the postal firm has the largest and the most up-to-date directory of addresses and post codes in the country.
Despite being rejected initially, An Post is back in. We reported that Mr Hogan called in An Post bosses for a face-to-face meeting on March 14. As a result, the company spent the following Thursday and Friday rapidly printing out the reminder leaflets, which went out nationally from March
19. ÷COUNCIL STAFF THE department announced plans to deploy hundreds of council staff to collect the charge door-to- door. The plan enraged public sector unions whose spokesmen say their members will not carry it out.
Yesterday, it emerged fraudsters are targeting vulnerable homeowners by posing as household charge collectors in Counties Meath, Laois and Donegal. Gardaí have now issued warnings.