Regina Doherty (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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Question 399: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government the amount of money that has been spent on the storage of the e-voting machines to date; the person who is benefitting from the storage of these machines; the tendering and procurement process that was in place for the contract to store e-voting machines; the relationship the person awarded the contract has to any political party; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15076/11]

Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Fine Gael)
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Question 421: To ask the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government his plans to scrap the e-voting machines as soon as possible; if he will respond to a matter (details supplied); and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15505/11]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 399 and 421 together.

In addressing the legacy of the electronic voting project, my priority is to see that the equipment is disposed of as soon as possible.

I have asked the Task Force that was established to oversee the cessation of the project to consider proposals for the disposal of the equipment, with a view towards immediately progressing arrangements. The Task Force met on 12 April 2011, and the necessary preliminary and background work to enable the disposal of the equipment to proceed is currently underway. This is to be completed as soon as possible.

In considering options for disposal of the equipment, the priority is to pursue the most economically advantageous approach, with a view to achieving the maximum recovery of cost possible in the circumstances, consistent with environmental and other obligations.

The detailed contractual and other arrangements for the storage of the electronic voting equipment were put in place by Returning Officers. Responsibility for the security and safe storage of manual voting electoral materials (such as ballot boxes, stamping instruments and stationery) has been and continues to be a matter for the Returning Officers, who are statutorily responsible for conducting the polls. Accordingly, similar responsibility was assigned to Returning Officers to make the necessary arrangements in relation to the storage of the electronic voting machines and equipment. Electronic voting equipment was originally stored at 25 local premises. In 2007, over 60% of the machines (4,762 in total) were moved from 12 local storage locations to a central facility at Gormanston Army Camp. One-off costs associated with the movement of these machines were €328,363.21. There are no ongoing rental costs in respect of the use of this property. Costs of €552.83 were incurred in 2009 in respect of equipment to monitor the environmental storage conditions at the Gormanston premises. A further 14 machines are held in the Custom House.

The remaining machines are stored at 13 local premises that were originally identified by Returning Officers for this purpose. It is intended that all machines will be removed from their present locations when arrangements for disposal are implemented. Work on termination of local lease arrangements is proceeding in this context.

Based on the figures received in my Department from Returning Officers, the total costs for storage of the electronic voting equipment (including the cost of rent, insurance, service charges, rates, heating, etc.) are set out in the following table.