Penalties will be imposed on retailers who fail to pay their plastic bag tax on time, as part of amendments to controversial environmental legislation currently going through the Oireachtas.
The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, will also make it mandatory for all new housing and commercial developments to include adequate waste and recycling facilities in the project. Planning permission will not otherwise be granted.
Both measures will be introduced when the Protection of the Environment Bill gets to the committee stage of its passage through the Dáil.
The Bill transposes EU waste policy and legislation - the "polluter pays" principle - into Irish law, but has been roundly condemned as undemocratic by the Labour Party.
Its spokesman Mr Eamon Gilmore claimed the household refuse charge would cost more than any single tax measure introduced for the past decade.
The Minister however insisted the Bill was necessary to deal with Ireland's waste crisis, and claimed Labour was "seeking short-term political advantage".
The plastic bag tax penalty will be a monthly late payment interest charge, similar to credit card charges.
Retailers are required to make monthly levy returns to the Revenue Commissioners.
A "very small minority", mostly small retail operations, have been slow to pay, according to a Department spokesman.
The majority of retailers make their payments monthly but the provision will compel the others, to make "timely payments", the Minister has said.
To date - in just over a year - the tax has generated approximately €11 million for the Exchequer.
Until it was introduced, some 1.1 billion plastic bags were used annually in Ireland.
In the first year of operation of the tax, 95 per cent of that number have "gone out of circulation".
Most large retailers, such as the supermarket chains, have re-usable bags in place.
The spokesman said however that the consumer still has the choice to use a plastic bag "but we will penalise them if they do".
To encourage recycling and make it more convenient, the Minister is introducing a scheme to have recycling facilities in all new housing and commercial developments.
Mr Cullen said the scheme would "make it mandatory to take account of the need for appropriate facilities for the handling of waste and recyclables in all new housing and commercial developments in future".
This will include "bring back" facilities for bottles and cans but will also include resources for the segregation of waste such as paper and plastics.
A record number - almost 57,700 - new houses and apartments were built last year and a high output is also expected for this year.
The Bill is expected to become law by July.
