The Government has rejected as a "political lie" Fine Gael claims that the passport system would cost almost €5 million a year in royalties.
Minister of State Noel Treacy said the system would cost in the region of €360,000 or 52 cents for each passport. Mr Treacy said "the 52 cents per passport is paid for the use of patented software technology used in producing the passports".
Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman Bernard Allen had described the amount used as "gross misspending". The cost in 2004 for the new automated passport system was 60 per cent higher than estimated in 2002, he said, at €21.8 million. "The cost to the taxpayer is €4.76 million a year. The contractor receives almost €7 for each passport," Mr Allen claimed.
However, Mr Treacy said the deputy knew well that the €4.76 million referred to in the Comptroller and Auditor General's report for recurring costs applied to "the purchase of state-of-the-art passport booklets which feature specialist data pages capable of holding digital photographs and other information vital for passport security and fraud prevention".
When he said the almost €5 million cost claimed by Mr Allen was a "political lie", the Leas Ceann Comhairle called on him to retract the word "lie" because it was unparliamentary. The Minister then described the claim as a "political fabrication".
A new system was implemented and additional costs were for extra security features in the wake of September 11th.
It would have been negligence had they not introduced these features, he said.
