THE 7,000 UNUSED electronic voting machines ordered by the government in 2002 could be melted down and turned into traffic cones, it has emerged.

Today’s Irish Independent reports that the €51m terminals – deployed as a trial in three constituencies in the 2002 election, but never since – will have to be shredded and recycled after the government admitted it was unable to find a buyer for them.

Disposing of the machines will add extra costs to the taxpayer, on top of the IR£40m spent on the machines and €3m on storage for the last eight years – with the costs of redeployment being anywhere between €175,000 and €210,000.

It is illegal for the government to dump the machines in landfill under EU rules – meaning the government will simply have to find alternate uses for them.

A manager from one electronic device disposal company told the paper that the materials in the machine could be deployed elsewhere – with traffic cones being one potential incarnation of the melted-down devices.

They could also be turned into ‘fleeces’ – though, with the total costs of the failed e-voting experiment reaching €54.2 million, it’d be fairer to call such a garmet a ‘golden fleece’.

With the National Roads Authority nearing the completion of its motorway construction scheme, the government would not have much use for a new hoard of traffic cones either.

At least there’s some good news – the company that spoke to the Independent, Asset Management Ireland, said it would be willing to submit a bid if the government issued a tender for the disposal of the machines.

The government yesterday admitted it would have to dispose of the machines, having had no significant offers to acquire them.