€2m PR bill for abandoned e-voting

THE Government has paid out more than €2 million in PR and advertising fees for electronic voting since the rollout of the system was abandoned.

The contract for the e-voting voter education and awareness campaign was engulfed in controversy after being awarded to a consortium headed by a PR company branded as “friends of Fianna Fáil”.

Exactly four months after the plug was pulled on Martin Cullen’s plans by an independent commission, the Department of the Environment has put the total cost of the abruptly halted e-voting venture at €42 million.