Minister for the Environment Phil Hogan this afternoon announced plans to try to sell off the State’s unused 7,500 electronic voting machines.
Earlier, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan said the machines, which have cost the State nearly €55 million since 2002, are now “valueless”.
In a statement following today's Cabinet meeting, Mr Hogan said a request for tenders will be issued by the end of this month seeking proposals for either the purchase of the equipment or for their disposal.
“I want to finally draw a line under the electronic voting project and also see that the equipment is disposed of properly,” Mr Hogan said. “Every effort must be made now to sell the equipment and get as much of these costs back as is possible in the circumstances.
He said the market is to be tested to see if there are any interested parties that may want to buy the machines. “While being optimistic we also need to be realistic. It is possible that no reasonable or acceptable offer for sale will be received.”
If they cannot be sold, the Government will consider proposals to dispose of them, he said. “If this is the outcome of the tendering process, the electronic voting machines would then be dismantled,” he said. “The recovery process would be carried out in line with national legislation and European regulations on the treatment of waste electrical and electronic equipment.
The Government is looking to sell, recycle or dispose of 7,500 voting machines; 154 reading units for uploading candidate details and downloading votes; 12,842 ballot modules used to store votes cast; 292 cases for carrying the units and modules; 1,232 transport and storage trolleys and 2,142 hand trolleys; 4,787 metal tilt tables the machine sit on and 918 tray attachments.
This morning, Mr Noonan blamed the previous government for wasting taxpayers’ money on the machines.
“Fianna Fáil thought it would not be fashionable as Bertie (Ahern) said to be ‘using the peann luaidhe’ any more and that you needed to have a hi-tech machine,” he told reporters as he went into Government Buildings this morning. “But when the hi-tech machine was checked out it didn’t do the job that it was supposed to do so the system was flawed. They are valueless now.
"There may be a market for them in Irish-themed pubs across the world," he joked.
Mr Ahern told the Dáil in 2007 that by not adopting the new technology “this country will move into the 21st century being a laughing stock with our stupid aul pencils”.
The government agreed to buy the machines for €50 million after they were piloted in a number of constituencies in the 2002 general election and in the Nice referendum. Since then, the bill to taxpayers for the machines has risen to €54.7 million in purchase and storage costs.
Dutch firm Nedap made the machines and public concerns in the Netherlands and Germany prompted the decommissioning of thousands of the machines in those countries.
Plans to use them nationally in the 2004 European and local elections were abandoned amid controversy over the system’s transparency and whether it was open to manipulation.
In April 2009, the then Green Party minister for the environment John Gormley announced that e-voting would be scrapped and the machines disposed of.
The machines were originally stored at 25 regional locations until, four years ago, 4,762 were moved to a central facility at Gormanston Army camp, Co Meath, at a one-off cost of €328,363.
A further 14 machines are held in the Custom House, Dublin.
The remaining machines are stored at 13 local premises chosen by returning officers.
Local storage costs last year amounted to €144,320.