Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called on the public to pay the €100 household as the deadline looms for payment of the levy.
A total of 395,232 households had paid the household charge by 5pm today, with just four days to go before the deadline. Today's figure includes 31,754 households that have paid since 4pm yesterday and a total of €39,523,200 has been collected to-date.
Speaking in China today, Mr Kenny called on people to pay the charge.
"I encourage everybody during the course of this week to make the payment. It's for their own local area - it's for their own local services," he said.
Speaking this evening, Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan, who has responsibility for introducing the charge, said there had been some confusion over the payment of the levy.
Citing issues surrounding data protection laws and EU tendering laws, Minister Hogan told RTE's Prime Time that the only means of payment open to the public are online, by cash to local authorities or by postal order through An Post.
Mr Hogan said nobody would go to jail over non-payment of the levy and that it could be deducted at source from those who go to court over non-payment.
He said the collection of the levy was the responsibility of the local authorities.
"At the end of the day, the local authorities have to get in the money. It's €160 million they require to fund these services. Otherwise you face the prospect of having a cut in services. Local authorities need this money for playgrounds and fire services and street cleaning and it's up to them to make sure they bring in the money," he said.
Mr Hogan said an administrative cost in the region of "3 or 4 per cent" associated with the introduction of the charge would be recouped from the €160 million.
"I want to give a solemn undertaking to the people of Ireland that may not have paid yet that if they do pay this charge that it will be ring-fenced for provision of local services," Mr Hogan said.
Speaking in the Dáil earlier today, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore denied accusations of bully-boy tactics over the introduction of the charge.
“I’m not bullying anybody, I’m not threatening anybody,” he said.
“I’m simply stating what is a fact. The fact is the Government introduced a household charge of €100. We don’t think that it serves any value for anybody to be bullying or threatening.”
Thousands attended a rally at the National Stadium on Saturday in protest against the charge while another rally is planned for the Fine Gael Ard Fheis in Dublin this weekend.
“We have a difficult road to travel and part of that difficult road is the introduction of the household charge,” Mr Gilmore added.
“Nobody likes additional charges but it’s a reality and it has to be paid by March 31st.”
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins warned Mr Gilmore that hundreds of thousands of people will refuse to do so because it is an unfair tax on “ordinary, decent” folk.
“You are threatening the ordinary, decent backbone of this country that you will drag them through court - people who pay their taxes,” said Mr Higgins.
Minister of State for Europe Lucinda Creighton said earlier today that the Government is determined to move ahead with the household charge despite mistakes being made in the way it has been handled. She said the Government’s only other option to raise the much-needed funds was to increase income tax and it did not want to have to do that.
This morning, Minister for Public Expenditure Brendan Howlin acknowledged people “prefer to receive a bill” but did not go as far as saying the Government had failed to inform people adequately about the charge
“There is a tradition that people like to get a bill so that they know what is owed and how to pay it… the proof of the pudding is in the eating and we need to ensure that everybody pays on time. It's a fair and just imposition on people,” he said.
Mr Howlin said the Government needed to broaden the tax base and said he was confident that once people “made the connection” between the charge and maintaining local services they would pay the charge.
“We need to broaden the tax base and we need to ensure that people understand the link between payment at local level and services at local level. We want to ensure that local services are maintained into the future – the parks, libraries etc. And I think once people make that connection they will want to support their local community.”