Medical card holders paying for e-voting plan - Gilmore

THE MONEY lost on the electronic voting project was the same amount as would be raised from the prescription charge over two years, Labour leader Eamon Gilmore told the Dáil.

“The Government thinks in billions of euro, so €50 million may not amount to a lot for it,” he said.

“However, €50 million is the amount which it will get back over two years on the 50 cent prescription charge it is imposing on medical card holders.” The charge, he said, would amount to €24 million this year.

“For the next two years, every medical card holder in this country will be paying 50 cent per item when filling a prescription in a pharmacy in order to pay back the €50 million the Government wasted on electronic voting,” said Mr Gilmore.

No Minister, he added, was ever held to account for what happened.

“Nobody was ever sacked or chastised. The money was wasted. It is about time that the Taoiseach, or somebody in the Government, had the good grace to stand up, say that they made a mistake, the money is gone, apologise, and accept responsibility for it,” he added.

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the €50 million “will not now be put to use because those voting machines will not be brought into operation”.

He said to associate that with costs in the health service was a political point which Mr Gilmore wanted to make.

“We have had to consider prescription charges due to the increasing cost of our drugs bill in this country, which has gone from €300 million to almost €1 billion over the past number of years,” he added.

Mr Cowen said the legislation required to bring in e-voting was supported by Fine Gael and Labour.

“The expert group found that the voting machines were fit for purpose and that software could have been reworked to achieve it, but a decision was taken by the Government not to proceed along those lines because it became a matter of public confidence as to whether the machines could be used here,” he added.

Earlier, Mr Gilmore said Labour, Fine Gael, information technology experts and academics had warned the Government in advance about wasteful expenditure on a voting system that would not work, was unreliable and should not be proceeded with.

Nevertheless, the Government had charged ahead and spent €50 million on machines which they could not now sell.

Mr Gilmore said that it was costing about €3 million annually to store the e-voting machines in warehouses on 20- to 25-year leases.

Mr Cowen said it was a great disappointment that there was a loss to the exchequer.

“The decision not to proceed was taken by the Government on the basis that it would not be possible to get all-party agreement for the e-voting machines,” he added.

Mr Gilmore said that was not true. The decision was taken because an expert group found the machines to be “dodgy and unreliable”.