Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

That is not true. The decision was not taken because all party agreement was not obtained. The decision was taken because an expert group set up to examine whether the system was reliable found it was just as, if not more, dodgy and unreliable to use electronic voting machines as both the Labour Party and Fine Gael pointed out when the exercise began. That is why the machines could not be used. The system was unreliable and it had to be abandoned. It had nothing to do with all party agreement. It was a waste of money which cost the taxpayer €50 million.

This Government thinks in billions of euro, so €50 million may not amount to a lot for it. However, €50 million is the amount which it will get back over two years on the 50 cent prescription charge it is imposing on medical card holders. The prescription charges will amount to €24 million per year. For the next two years, every medical card holder in this counter will be paying 50 cent per item when filling a prescription in a pharmacy in order to pay back the €50 million the Government wasted on electronic voting machines. No Minister was ever held to account for this. Nobody was ever sacked or chastised. The money was wasted. It is about time that the Taoiseach or somebody in the Government had the good grace to stand up, say that they made a mistake, the money is gone, apologise-----

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