Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)

In a previous reply, the Minister stated that he would not be afraid to make a tough decision, if necessary, on the e-voting machines. Obviously he did not get around to making any tough decision in the past few days, despite the announcement of €43 million worth of cuts in his Department. He has an opportunity now to make some savings by terminating the storage arrangements and selling or recycling the e-voting machines, although it now seems clear that will not happen.

Does the Minister accept that €51.3 million in the roll-out of electronic voting and €2.8 million, to date, on storage costs is an obscene amount of money to have spent on a project that is dead? At a time when €48.3 million must be saved in his Department, I urge him to re-examine those cuts and to deal with the issue of terminating the storage contracts and selling, at whatever salvage value can be obtained, the e-voting machines.

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