The State will incur significant additional election costs following the decision to abandon use of the electronic voting system in the June polls. Arthur Beesley, Political Reporter, reports.
A spokesman for the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said last night he did not have information about likely savings if the system had been used.
However, Mr Cullen said in a statement on March 2nd that he expected "substantial" savings in electoral administration, particularly for the count procedure. Such savings will not now be realised.
Mr Cullen's spokesman said the projected cost of the manual counts after the elections and referendum on Friday, June 11th, was €6 million.
He said returning officers had estimated that they would require only a quarter of staff needed for a manual count if the electronic system had been used.
The local election count will begin at 9 a.m. on the morning of Saturday, June 12th. The first indications of the result will be known early that afternoon.
The count for the referendum poll will begin on the afternoon of June 12th. Because that poll is a straightforward count of votes for and against the Government proposal, the result is expected within hours.
The count for the European election will commence on the morning of Sunday, June 13th. However, the result will not be announced until after the close of polling stations elsewhere in the EU that Sunday night.
Despite the decision to abandon the electronic system for now, the Government pressed ahead yesterday with the report stage debate on the Bill which would have allowed use of the system on June 11st.
The Government maintained that the Bill should be passed to enable the Commission on Electronic Voting to continue its work.
Both the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and Mr Cullen insisted in the Dáil yesterday that the multimillion euro expenditure on the electronic system had not been wasted because the system would be used in a future election.
Mr Ahern said: "The commission, where it states that certain of its tests identified an error in the count software which could lead to incorrect distribution of surpluses, stated it did so to a degree of 0.001."
While the Opposition said the Government had spent €52 million on the system, a Government spokeswoman insisted last night that the capital expenditure on the system was €42 million.
She said over €2 million from a separate €5 million public relations and marketing budget had already been spent. She accepted that such expenditure would be required again whenever the system was introduced.
She added that the public relations contract, currently held by the Q4 firm, would have to be put out to tender again.