MINISTER FOR the Environment John Gormley came under renewed pressure to abandon the Government's proposal to introduce electronic voting.
Mr Gormley repeated that the machines, which have cost more than €50 million, are unlikely to be used in next year's European and local elections. He said the project was "a legacy issue" and he was trying to address it as comprehensively as possible.
"When will the Minister make a decision - scrap the project and stop wasting taxpayers' money?'' asked Labour TD Ciarán Lynch.
The Minister said he was taking into account the detailed work of the commission on electronic voting, which had examined the system, relevant experiences and developments internationally, the need to maintain public confidence in the electoral process, as well as the provisions in the programme for government relating to electoral reform generally.
"Given the scale of investment in the system to date, which I have set out, and the importance of the issues involved for our electoral system, it is essential the future of the project be examined objectively and in a thorough and comprehensive manner,'' he added.
"The House will appreciate it is not possible to make a more specific comment at this point pending completion of the necessary work and a decision by Government in the matter.''
Mr Gormley said that the roll-out and development of the system to date had cost some €51.3 million, the bulk of which had been incurred in the purchase of the machines and ancillary equipment.
The total annual costs of storage of the equipment, including insurance, service charges, rates and heating, between 2004 and 2007, were €658,000, €696,000, €706,000 and €489,000 respectively.
Some €139,000 had been spent on storage in the first six months of this year, he added.
Last year more than 60 per cent of the machines, or a total of 4,762, were moved to a central storage facility located at Gormanston Army camp. Movement and storage cost €328,000.
"These are largely one-off costs related to the preparation of the facility, transportation of the machines and the acquisition of storage containers,'' he added.
"The available capacity at this location has been fully utilised.''
Mr Lynch said that pensioners must be bewildered. "In a week in which the House addressed the issue of medical cards, this might appear to be a small matter, but it is significant,'' he added.
Mr Lynch said that the Labour Party's position was clear: the project should be scrapped.
"The Minister does not have a plan. He is prevaricating and sitting on the issue,'' said Mr Lynch.
"Public money is being squandered, yet the Minister has not responded to a matter raised with him six months ago. He has done nothing in that period except to give me the same answer that he gave then.''
Mr Gormley said that if he had scrapped the project, he had no doubt that "Deputy Ciarán Lynch would have been on the plinth screaming about the waste of money''.
It was a complex issue, and he was pleased that the amount of money being expended had decreased, including significantly reduced storage costs.
"I am aware of people's discontent with the project,'' Mr Gormley added.
