E-voting storage costs to be investigated

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche is to investigate the “inexplicable” difference in the cost of storing e-voting machines.

Also to be investigated is how some State-appointed officials who oversee elections are getting up to €65,000 a year to store the machines.

The State is paying hugely different annual rates for storing the machines, ranging from nothing in Sligo to an average of €1.65 per machine in Louth to €271 in Waterford.

Some returning officers who oversee elections have privately bought premises to store the machines. One of them, Dublin City chief returning officer Brendan Walsh, is getting €65,000 a year to do so.

Mr Roche has asked officials in his department and the Finance Department to examine the difference in costs.

“I want the differences and the disparity examined to have absolute clarity that nothing improper is happening,” Mr Roche told RTÉ.

But he stressed there was no suggestion of impropriety in the system because the officials who oversaw the operation released this information into the public domain.

Asked why a State agency like the Office of Public Works could not be given the responsibility for finding storage premises for the e-voting machines, a Department of Environment spokesman said: “The returning officers who oversee elections are independent contractors and they have the responsibility for storing them and charging the Department of Finance for it.”

But Fine Gael said taxpayers were paying exorbitant rates for the storage of useless machines because of a lack of direction in the Environment Department.

Deputy Finance spokesman Paul McGrath, who obtained the information on the cost of storing the machines, said he was amazed the department did not seek detailed information on ownership of premises used by returning officers.

“Something is rotten in the Department of the Environment; no financial control, no sense of duty to the taxpayers and a constant refusal to be straight with the people until it is pestered for information,” Mr McGrath said.

Mr Walsh confirmed that he bought an industrial premises for storing 777 e-voting machines with his daughter Cara Walsh.

He said the annual storage costs of the machines was a bargain and he stood to make no profit. “I bought the place, I adapted it. When all the figures come in, I think it will just about wash its face,” he said.

Mr Walsh said he had no doubt his arrangement will stand up to full scrutiny.

The league table for the annual storage costs of machines shows that Dublin County has the second highest cost at €62,939.

Dublin County sheriff and returning officer John Fitzpatrick also confirmed he had to buy a premises to store 800 machines. He said this was part of his job and his charge to the State included a €28,000 annual rent after a professional had valued the premises.

“I am happy for him (the minister) to look into my accounts. We make returns to the department every six months and these accounts have already gone to him,” Mr Fitzpatrick told RTÉ.