Government threats to withdraw public services where the household charge isn’t paid are an outrageous attack at the poor, it’s been claimed.

Socialist TD Joe Higgins warned the Fine Gael-Labour coalition won’t break out with plans to allocate funds to local authorities reckoning on what quantity of money each took in from the 100 euro levy.

“In the event that they go along these lines they are going to be encouraging massive social dislocation and additional social inequality. It’s going to simply not be permissible,” said Mr Higgins.

“There’ll be an outcry, an upheaval against that. It will likely be outrageous.”

Environment Minister Phil Hogan hinted over the weekend that he would reward authorities that pulled out all of the stops to gather outstanding registration payments. Mr Higgins said poor areas will suffer further because of this.

The Dublin West TD, who has led a campaign against the household charge besides eight other TDs from the Technical Group, also accused the govt. of constant to control registration figures to avoid wasting face.

The Government has said all along it hopes to boost around 160 million euro from the charge – money so that you can fund public services, including libraries, parks and pathways.

The Department of Environment said over 800,000 households had registered by Sunday night, which it claimed surpassed the half-way mark in line with 1.6 million householders eligible to register.

But Mr Higgins argued that 1.8 million at the moment are required to register and 1.75 million required to pay, which means only 45% have actually registered and never half. His figures come from NUI Maynooth academic Professor Rob Kitchin who made the calculations in keeping with Central Statistics Office data released last week.

He said: “Saying it has passed the half-way mark is simply another example of presidency spin. The govt is in every single place with this shambolic charge. Should you go by the $64000 figures, 55% haven’t paid the charge.”