Dublin faces revolt over household charge Almost half of Irish households have failed to meet a deadline to pay a new tax, raising fears that growing public opposition to austerity could undermine Dublin's ability to implement further reforms. Just 805,500 of Ireland's 1.6m households registered to pay the €100 household charge by midnight on Saturday in the face of a protest campaign urging a boycott of the tax. Several hundred thousand people face fines and could be taken to court if they refuse to pay. Ireland has earned praise as the "posterboy for austerity" for implementing €24bn in tax rises and spending cuts without undermining social cohesion during a four-year financial crisis. But as its export-led recovery stalls, opposition to the tax is raising questions about Dublin's ability to implement a further €9bn in promised austerity measures over the next four years. "The danger is that the moral authority of the government to bring in new taxes is being weakened by the boycott and its legitimacy is under attack," said Elaine Byrne, a political science lecturer at Trinity College Dublin. Dublin agreed to introduce a property tax in 2012 under its European Union and International Monetary Fund bail-out programme to help it cut its €18bn annual budget deficit. It is implementing the household charge as an interim measure while it establishes a nationwide property valuation system, which will enable it to levy a more progressive property tax. But an anti-tax campaign led by nine members of parliament, urging a boycott, has struck a chord with a public growing weary of austerity. "This is a regressive tax and many people just can't afford it," said Thomas Pringle, one of the MPs pledging to go to jail rather than pay up. I believe if a law is unfair and unjust you have a right to oppose it. People paid huge amounts of stamp duty when they were conned into buying houses during the boom and now they are being hit with property taxes. Maria Ward, a protester at a recent Dublin rally opposing the tax, told the FT at the demonstration: "The household charge is a totally unfair tax. The richest people in the land pay the same as the poor. The Fine Gael/Labour coalition has admitted mistakes in implementing the charge. Publicity leaflets were delayed when a publishing company went out of business, and the government failed to agree a deal with local post offices, who cannot accept over-the-counter payments. But it has refused to extend the deadline, insisting the charge is low and enough warning has been given. "The law is there, I expect that people will obey that law," said Enda Kenny, Ireland's prime minister. He said the €160m raised by the charge would pay for local services. But the protests have worried the government, which faces a tricky referendum on the eurozone fiscal treaty on May 31 and a slowing economy that will put pressure on its ability to meet its EU-IMF targets. Last week Ireland's national statistics" office confirmed the country had slipped back into recession in the third and fourth quarters of 2011 when gross domestic product fell by 1.1 per cent and 2 per cent respectively. Dublin has committed to implementing a further €9bn in austerity measures over the next four years under its EU-IMF programme. These will include the proposed property tax, water charges and the possibility of further income tax increases. Joe Higgins, the Socialist party MP and anti-household charge campaigner, told demonstrators at the Dublin rally that they had the government on the run. "Not since Davitt and the land league has there been such a disciplined grassroots campaign," he said in reference to Michael Davitt - a socialist revolutionary who led mass protests in Ireland against high rents and evictions by landlords in the late 19th century. Grassroots campaigns have been successful in Ireland in the past. In the mid-1990s a campaign led by Mr Higgins against water charges forced the last Fine Gael/Labour coalition to abolish the levy in 1996. Months of protests by rural campaigners forced the government into a climbdown last month over a proposed charge for a new inspection regime for septic tanks. Dublin cut the proposed charge from €50 to €5. Diarmaid Ferriter, professor of history at University College Dublin, said Ireland's history of being colonised meant land and property matters were always a serious political, social and emotional issue. Other taxes had been levied at source, he said, so "this is the first chance the public has had to engage in non-compliance."