Taxpayers will pay dearly to modify electronic voting machines

THE taxpayer is facing a hefty bill for the modification of the Government’s 7,000 electronic voting machines, it emerged yesterday.

The Department of the Environment also said it had not even checked whether a paper audit trail could be added to the machines in time for this summer's elections.

More than 6,000 machines have already been delivered at a cost of €27m, while all 7,000 will be here before the end of March. They cost €4,580 each.