Green Party leader John Gormley said today negotiations are continuing to return Ireland's unused electronic voting machines to the manufacturer.
Discussions are underway with the company that manufactured the machines, NEDAP, in a bid to establish if the machines could possibly be returned, the Minister for the Environment told reporters in Cork.
“We are trying to obviously reduce the amount of money that the taxpayer is liable for. That is always the case when you make a Government decision – you want to protect the Irish taxpayer,” he said.
“The contracts are already in existence, you see, and there are no added costs in terms of storage at all. Those contracts have been entered into and they are long term contracts."
Mr Gormley said negotiations in relation to these matters are always protracted and complex but every effort was being made to protect the taxpayer to ensure they get the best value for money.
The Minister announced in April 2009 that electronic voting equipment, which cost the State some €50 million, was being abandoned.
A number of the voting machines were used in the 2002 general election in a pilot project in the Dublin North and Meath constituencies, but none has been used since.
Some 60 per cent of the machines are in storage in the Curragh. The cost of storing the remaining 40 per cent came to €204,000 in 2008.