Let’s sell e-voting machines to Mugabe, says Deasy

WATERFORD Fine Gael TD John Deasy is urging the Government to call time on the failed electric voting machines, and has suggested the flogging of them to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as one of a number of possible options for their disposal.

The controversial Dungarvan based deputy, who is also a member of the Dáil Public Accounts Committee, said it is the end of the road for these machines which have cost the taxpayer €52 million to buy and are costing an additional €1m annually to store at various locations countrywide.

Ironically, some of the highest storage costs are in the Waterford constituency of the then Environment and Local Government Minister Martin Cullen, who was left with the responsibility of trying to get Dáil approval for the machines, which were the brainchild of his predecessor Noel Dempsey.

In Waterford city, there are 195 machines being stored, for which the Government is paying rental of almost €51,000 a year to Johnstown Properties Ltd. That is four times what it is costing in some other constituencies.

The Commission On Electronic Voting is expected to present proposals on the machines’ future shortly, but Mr Deasy insists the end of the road has been reached. “It is time for the Government to admit defeat on this one’, he said.

Mr Deasy said the e-voting issue has been a massively costly fiasco from the taxpayers perspective and it is time for the Government to bite the bullet and get rid of them.

“They might try to sell them off to Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe or advertise them on eBay,” he said, adding that the stark fact is that the issue is over and even some Fianna Fáil TDs are now accepting that.