The final cost of electronic voting computer software will not be known until later this year, the Department of the Environment has acknowledged.
The last version of the software cannot be completed until plans are in place for the presidential election, which is due to take place in November. Negotiations on the final costs are "ongoing and are dependent on the decision as to whether the Department decides to license or purchase the code", it said.
The information was contained in a 14-page reply to a leading campaigner against the Government's electronic voting plans, Mr Joe McCarthy.
The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Mr Cullen, will consider "at that stage" calls to publish the system's computer source code.
The Department rejected Irish Citizens for Trustworthy E-Voting (ICTE) criticisms that the use of Microsoft's Access software in the counting system is entirely unsuitable. The decision by the manufacturers, NEDAP/Powervote, to use Access is based on the company's "accumulated knowledge and experience in running elections since the 1980s".
Powervote's view that MS Access is suitable for use as an element of the election management application has been supported by Nathean Technologies.
"They have evaluated the database with the quantity of data which will be loaded and processed during an election and have concluded that MS Access is capable and adequate.
"This view is backed up by experiences in the city of Cologne where more than four million votes have been processed across 600 polling stations covering nine polls without incident."
The counting software will not store the details of the count, as that information will be held on the modules taken from each voting machine.
Questioned about the system's ability to deal with power cuts, the Department of Environment argued that the voting machines can keep votes "safe and intact" without needing batteries.
"However, stand-by batteries will be provided for each voting machine which will enable the voting machine to operate on battery power. If power fails before the 'Cast Vote' button has been activated, the preferences are not stored as a vote in the ballot module and the voter is given another opportunity to vote."
Defending NEDAP's refusal to release its computer code, the Department said the company believed that this would offer competitors an advantage.
Emphasising its belief that NEDAP/Powervote's software is "accurate and thorough", the Department said this had been supported "by continuous independent reviews which span more than 15 years".
The two companies "have the utmost confidence in the security and reliability of their system" where "there has never been an incident" where votes were lost.
