The chairman of the Dáil Committee of Public Accounts has warned of the possibility of interference in the electronic voting system by paramilitaries linked to Sinn Féin.
Mr Michael Noonan stressed the need for a strong security system to protect the electronic voting system, if the machines not used in last year's election were to be introduced in future polls.
"I don't want to make any references to the people who robbed the bank in Belfast, but you'd want to get absolute assurances that everything was under control with the number of electronics experts that have become redundant since they stopped planting bombs."
Mr Noonan later specifically linked his remarks to Sinn Féin and said extreme caution should be exercised to ensure that hardware and software were protected.
"In all election situations, for some time, there have been concerns about abuses, in particular personation, and the concern has increased as Sinn Féin participates more widely in elections."
At the committee hearing, Mr Noonan said the Commission on Electronic Voting had noted that the system was never tested in sequence. He also questioned the merits of the system which uses technology dating from the 1980s.
"I had a very good car in 1987. I don't use it any more."
It emerged at the hearing that the cost of storing the machines bought for last year's election was likely to rise to €1 million with inflation. A document given to the meeting by the secretary-general of the Department of the Environment, Mr Niall Callan, put the unaudited storage cost this year at €658,228.94. Mr Callan said this would rise to €1 million "in rough and ready terms" with inflation.
Annual storage costs were highest in Waterford, at €50,820. This led Socialist TD Mr Joe Higgins to ask if the machines were being kept "in a penthouse or a shed".
Storage costs in 23 constituencies were €469,283 in addition to insurance fees of €137,393.88 and "miscellaneous costs" of €50,552.06. In addition, Mr Callan agreed with the suggestion that the Department would have to pay the makers of the machines for maintenance when the current purchase contract expired in 2007.
