Dáil probe urged into Cullen ‘misuse of funds’

THE Dáil is to be asked to investigate opposition claims that Environment Minister Martin Cullen misused public funding on the controversial electronic voting system.

Some €52 million had already been spent on voting machines, training and publicity campaigns for electronic voting.

Reacting to the findings of the Electronic Voting Commission last night, Fine Gael environment spokesman Bernard Allen said over €50m had been squandered on an electronic voting system despite the reservation and concerns of experts and the opposition.

“There is a case for the PAC [Public Accounts Committee] to carry out a full investigation of the misuse of public money on a system that wasn’t authorised and wasn’t yet fully tested. I will be asking committee chairman John Perry to carry out a full investigation,” he said.

Labour social and family affairs spokesman Willie Penrose said the amount of money spent by Mr Cullen on the system was almost equal to the amount the Government cut from this year’s social welfare budget.

“In an act of personal vanity, Mr Cullen wasted €52m trying to ram through e-voting when the country was completely unprepared for it. At the same time that he was wasting millions on public ads promoting his agenda and purchasing machines that will now not be used, the Government was cutting €58m from the social welfare budget,” he said.

Labour environment spokesman Eamon Gilmore said the waste of money merited nothing less than a resignation.

“A minister who goes off and spends €52m of taxpayers’ money on something which he was told was not safe and for which he didn’t have legal authority should not retain his position. On top of that, he repeatedly misled the Dáil by telling us this was all fine.

“Somebody has to take the responsibility for a mistake that cost the taxpayer that much.”

Speaking to reporters in Leinster House yesterday, Mr Cullen said the €42m spent on voting machines was a 20-year capital investment and denied any money had been wasted.

Mr Cullen also indicated that another €5m spent on a joint advertising, public relations and information campaign would be reduced back substantially.

According to the minister, only €1.7m has so far been spent on publicity and a campaign against voter apathy.

However, Q4, the company which won a lucrative PR contract to promote the system, was unavailable for comment last night.

Nedap/Powervote, the company supplying the Government with voting machines and software, was also unavailable for comment last night.

Just two weeks ago, the Government ordered an extra 300 voting machines in addition to the 6,500 already delivered and distributed to constituencies around the country. Each machine costs about €6,000.

Storage costs for the machines are also significant and amount to €50,000 annually in Mr Cullen’s Waterford constituency.