I am conscious that it falls to me to ask the last question the Taoiseach will reply to as Taoiseach in this House.

Avoid more like.

I have been thinking of something easy that I could ask him this morning. I have settled on a matter he has been asked on before on 25 April 2007, almost 12 months to the day. He got quite upset then, apologising to the people of Meath because they would not be able to vote electronically in the upcoming general election. Instead, they would have to use the peann luaidhe.

It did not matter in the election, did it?

After the events of last Sunday in Parnell Park——

Does the Deputy expect him to apologise for that?

Deputy Gilmore without interruption.

After last Sunday's events, I would not expect the Taoiseach to be apologising to Meath people this morning.

I heard him yesterday encouraging his successor to get a new Government jet. As he is tidying up his affairs, will he decide what should be done with the electronic voting machines?

Where is the Minister for Transport, Deputy Noel Dempsey?

He can stand on them as his record.

A couple of thousand clapped-out voting machines that cannot and will not be used is a terrible legacy for the Taoiseach to leave the people. In the couple of working days he has left in office, will he take out the peann luaidhe and draw a line under the electronic voting machines?

Consign them to Hammond Lane.

We could send them to Zimbabwe.

Send them to the constituency of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government.

The Deputies will find this is more complicated.

I thought I was going to be asked about Parnell Park for which I have no responsibility. To be honest — and I have to be totally honest——--

For the first time ever.

Since it is my last question as Taoiseach, it is only fair I should give Deputy Gilmore my best answer and best advice. My best advice is that since he could not beat me with the peann luaidhe, he should go to the old machines because he would have a far better chance with them.

I have to remind the Taoiseach that on the day I was elected leader of my party he also said he saw out many of my predecessors. I think the peann luaidhe could serve me well for a long time to come yet.

There is a serious point to this. These machines cost €60 million——

It costs €700,000 just to store them.

——which I am sure the Taoiseach will acknowledge could have been better spent. It is two years since the Commission on Electronic Voting reported. It not only confirmed what those of us who had been critical of the particular system had said for a long time but added to it.

None of the Taoiseach's Ministers want to touch this. Every time the line Minister, Deputy Gormley, or his predecessors are asked about it, they run a mile. At some stage it will take a Minister to decide the inevitable on what we all know — these machines will not be used. Continuing to store them is adding more cost to the waste already incurred in the project. Somebody must decide to call it a day and that they will never be used. As the Taoiseach has a window for several weeks, he might unburden his ministerial colleagues with such a decision and write them off.

The Taoiseach might go into the scrap business.

The technology report showed it requires the development of new software for these machines to have the confidence of the House and the public. It is technically not difficult to do this. It means an enhancement of the machines and development of the software they use. All of the advice and reports state that this is possible to do. My view is that we are best doing this in the context of the electoral commission that will take over all of the responsibilities. Any attempt to do it another way will not find favour in this House. If it does not find favour in this House, we will be back in controversy.

It is a fact that — I would urge the House in this respect — practically every place in the world, with very few exceptions from the great democracies to the states of India to the poor of the world, is using technology systems.

That is not true. They failed in Pennsylvania all day yesterday.

The Government should send them to Mugabe. He might get the result he wants.

Zimbabwe does not have it.

The Taoiseach without interruption.

Deputy Durkan is not the Labour Party's leader.

Within the electoral commission and with the enhancement that has been identified in the software development, we should get on with it. It is not satisfactory as we go into the next decade that we are not using technology for electoral systems. We are using an old system that might be enjoyable, but it is a way of the past. As a country, we should be very proud of what we have achieved. We are a service country — 4% of the entire world's global services originate in this country. This is a huge achievement for the Irish economy. In our best areas — pharmaceutical, medical and information and communication technology — we should be seen to lead.

The Government has squandered money.

It is an affront to ourselves that, at a time when, for about ten years in a row, we have been either first or second in the export of software development globally, we are still using paper and pens.

The Government is wasting money.

They are Dutch machines.

It is far from the image of what we have built in this country. We should keep moving forward. I know the House will do that in the immediate future.

Hear, hear.