Ulick Burke (Fine Gael)

I will be brief. Yesterday, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government advertised for the appointment of consultants to once more examine the reliability, efficiency and accuracy of voting machines. Everyone in the country is well aware of the inefficiency, unreliability and the lack of secrecy inherent in the machines, which are already costing a great deal of money to store. I cannot see why we are again appointing consultants and incurring further expenditure to prove once more, probably, that they are inefficient. Those machines will probably be replaced. Will the Leader request the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government to decide once and for all that those machines will not be used at the next opportunity the electorate will have to vote? There is no need to appoint consultants to further waste scarce resources that could be used more valuably in other areas.