The bill for storing the 7,500 electronic voting machines around the country is now running at just under €700,000 per year, the Dáil Public Accounts Committee heard yesterday.
The secretary general of the Department of the Environment, Niall Callan, said the storage bill for this year would be €696,000. This represents an increase of around €38,000 over last year's figure.
He said the Department of the Environment was in discussions with the Department of Defence about having the machines stored centrally in Army premises. However he said that there were issues of security, scale and logistics to be decided.
Mr Callan said the independent commission that was examining the secrecy and accuracy of the electronic voting system was continuing its work and would produce a report shortly.
He said that external consultants engaged by the department were also looking in greater depth at the security of the system. However he said that they had not yet finalised their report. Mr Callan said the position of the department was that next year's general election would be run on the basis of a paper ballot. However he said the final decision would be a matter for a ministerial order when the Dáil was dissolved.
Socialist Party TD, Joe Higgins, said that if, as expected, the electronic voting machines were not used in next year's general election that €25 million to €30 million could be wiped off the value of the State's investment in depreciation before the time of the subsequent election.
He said that the e-voting machines only had a lifespan of 20 years and that they would be in their 10th year by the time the election after next came around.
Joan Burton, of the Labour Party, said that over their 20-year lifespan the cost of storing the machines could run to €14 million.
The vice-chairman of the committee, John McGuinness, of Fianna Fáil, said the time had come for the department to consider scrapping the machines as it was clear they would not be used in the near future.
He said the department should seek to secure the scrap value of the machines. He said it should then engage in an exercise to build public confidence about using technology for e-voting at some time in the future.
Committee chairman Michael Noonan, of Fine Gael, asked whether the department had a contingency plan in the event of a ministerial decision to use e-voting in the election.
He asked whether training would be provided in advance for returning officers and their staff and whether premises would be vetted for suitability for using the machines. Mr Callan said the department would use its resources and make the best effort to work any decision handed down to it.
Mr Noonan said that it was obvious that he was not going to get an answer to a straightforward question.
Mr Callan also said the department was aware of concerns regarding errors in the electoral register. He said local authorities had to deal with greater movement of people than at any time in modern Irish history.
He said such concerns were not new and that as far back as 1986 the ESRI had warned of inaccuracies in the register.
