Report critical of electronic voting project

The Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell has criticised aspects of the Government's electronic voting project.

In a report published today, Mr Purcell said the €50m scheme should have been subjected to more rigorous cost/benefit analysis in view of the scale of the financial commitments involved.

The report said it was 'not unreasonable' for the Department of the Environment to have proceeded with the project as it did.

However, the report said the decision to purchase an extra 400 machines for the Nice Referendum before they had been modified to meet new requirements led to an avoidable cost of €680,000 being incurred.