The Minister for Finance is to meet with the chairman of the Revenue Commissioners this evening to discuss the Property Tax controversy.

Michael Noonan has joined his Cabinet colleagues in insisting that nobody will be forced to pay the tax for next year before Christmas of this year.

However several ministers have said the Revenue Commissioners should use whatever leeway they have to offer more flexibility over when the tax should be paid.

Five cabinet ministers have today insisted that people are not being forced to pay the 2014 property tax before this year is out.

Ministers Alan Shatter, Frances Fitzgerald and Ruairi Quinn are among those insisting the tax for next year can be paid next year.

In Limerick this afternoon, Finance Minister Michael Noonan said homeowners had a number of options on how to pay the tax, with people being given the option to pay in advance if they wanted to.

However the Minister warned that if too many people took this option it could lead to some difficulty for the government as the money would have to be included in the 2013 accounts and not 2014.

"We wan the bulk of the money to come in in 2014 - because that's the way we've done the budget" he said.

"It would give us a difficulty, actually, if too much came in in advance - because it would have to be accounted for in 2013 and we might have a shortfall in that part of our budget in 2014" he added.

This evening the Minister will meet with the Revenue chairman Josephine Feehily to discuss the way in which the tax is being collected.

In a statement Revenue said anyone paying by credit or debit card would have their cards charged immediately because it was illegal to retain their details and process the payments next year instead.