The Public Accounts Committee has heard that the cost of insurance and storage for electronic voting machines this year will be €696,000.
Niall Callan, Accounting Officer at the Department of Environment, Heritage and Local Government said that talks were under way with the Department of Defence to try to find a centralised storage area for the e-voting machines.
Committee Chairman Michael Noonan asked if there was a contingency plan in place to use the machines for the next General Election.
However, Mr Callan would only reply that the department's focus remained on validating the system.
