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Campaigners fighting the 100 euro household charge are offering free legal advice to homeowners threatened with prosecution for refusal to pay.
As the body responsible for administering and collecting the levy said second red notices to pay up are being issued, politicians opposed to the tax accused officials of bullying.
Mick Barry, a Socialist party councillor and spokesman for the Campaign Against Household and Water Taxes, said threats of court action are intended to frighten people into paying.
"Threats to cut local services are also an attempt to bully people into paying," he said.
"Local services are under threat because the Government has cut 170 million euro from local authority budgets. This money has been used to bail out financial speculators. Local services are being cut as a direct result of the Government's austerity agenda."
The Local Government Management Agency (LGMA) revealed earlier this week that 100 million euro has been received to date from 990,459 households.
Some 1.01 million properties are registered so far, leaving about 700,000 homes unpaid.
Paul McSweeney, LGMA chief executive, has warned that council services like disabled supports, street lighting, sports clubs, public parks, fire and emergency services, street cleaning and libraries could be dramatically cut unless all homes pay. The LGMA plans to send a second round of letters to non-paying homes in September.
Brian Stanley, Sinn Fein local government spokesman, claimed that the LGMA was acting at the behest of Environment Minister Phil Hogan.
"How much is it going to cost to haul such a huge number of people before the courts?" he asked. This unjust charge has been a complete failure in terms of revenue raising, yet the Fine Gael/Labour Government has made local government dependent upon it, fully realising that major cuts in services will result."
