Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I am glad Deputy Kenny tabled this motion, which my party is happy to support. It has already succeeded in flushing out the division and unease within and between the Government parties and has forced a climbdown by the Government. It is, however, only a partial climbdown when the critical issue of the verifiable vote audit trail remains unresolved. When I referred to my support for the motion, I must be honest and state that, if left to my own devices, I would probably go a good deal further than the motion proposes.

It is not fashionable to declare oneself hostile to any aspect of new technology but, at the risk of being unfashionable, I consider this project one of the greatest wastes of money this Government has undertaken, which is to say something. We are in the process of spending €40 million to fix something which is not broken, based on no demand for change, no evaluation of flaws within the current system and no indication that the current system has ever produced anything but fair results. We need to spend a considerable sum of money on encouraging people to vote in the numbers to which we were accustomed. We need to engage in educational programmes to re-instil the value of a vote in citizens who have become disillusioned and alienated from electoral politics.

All of this has come about without the House ever being permitted to focus on the issues thrown up by the electronic voting and counting system. Far more importantly, we need to fix politics. The deceit and broken promises that are the great legacy of this Government from the last election, coupled with the venality, corruption and fraud that have been the enduring legacy of some politicians, have done more than the voting system could ever do to alienate voters.

If we cannot take the steps necessary to restore trust in the political process, all the glossy high-tech machines and all the advertising campaigns in the world will not lure voters back into the polling booths. Instead of becoming serious about the need to restore trust, the Government decides to install a system of counting votes that people simply do not trust. It is hard to imagine a more hapless response to the increasing malaise in the practice of politics at every level.

The Government has now essentially admitted that its entire proposal is in a shambles. For weeks I have been asking the Taoiseach to set out the legal underpinning for electronic voting and counting. Every time I have asked the question I have received a different answer. He has written to me on occasion to say he was wrong. Statutory instruments were necessary, then they were not and then they were again. It has been a little like the Fianna Fáil Party version of Lanigan's Ball. Now at the last minute, the Government states that primary legislation is needed. One must wonder if it ever obtained legal advice on this matter before settling on the current legal fiasco.

What is the legislation for? According to the Government amendment, its purpose, among other matters, is to set up an independent body to oversee the system of electronic voting but not, critically, the electronic counting. The amendment carefully refers to electronic voting and counting in several places but omits any reference to counting where the remit of the so-called independent commissioner is concerned. One can only assume it remains the Government's intention that the Fianna Fáil Party's director of elections, the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Cullen, will remain in charge of the counting.

Whatever reason we had to be suspicious before, we have twice the reason now. I said earlier that the Government had done only one thing but in fact it has done two. A substantial part of the €40 million will be spent on an advertising campaign run and co-ordinated by people who have been and remain very close to Fianna Fáil. That in itself raises serious issues of propriety. There is no proposal in the amendment that the independent commission will take responsibility for the advertising and public relations campaign now under way. It can be guaranteed that the vast bulk of that money will be well spent and the enormous fees invoiced and paid long before the independent commission is up and running.

If this matter were handled in this fashion by any other party in this House and if the crony contracts were disbursed in this fashion, Fianna Fáil in Opposition would create uproar. From what I have seen of the advertising campaign so far, it seems to rely on the basic assumption that all of us are technological illiterates who need to be reassured that the machines will not bite us when we enter the polling station. If we can flick on a light switch we will apparently find the machines user-friendly. I do not know how many times I have heard it said over the years that this is the most sophisticated electorate in the world. We are used to using a relatively complex system of single transferable voting to express often elaborate and far-reaching preferences. Our economy is sold all over the world as the one with the most highly educated and adaptable workforce, computer literate and skilled in every aspect of production but we have to be told in a campaign that will cost millions that we should not be afraid to touch a computer screen. In short, the public relations campaign on which the Government is content to spend all this money is an insult to the intelligence of the people.

If the so-called independent commission is established with enough independence to venture a recommendation — I do not know if Mr. P. J. Mara and others are available to serve — especially a recommendation that not enough has been done to generate public trust, what will the Government do then? By the time the commission is established, we will be a few weeks away from the local and European elections. How can any such body undertake the necessary task of restoring trust in a process that has been so damaged by the activities of the Government in so short a time? This is especially the case when the Government excludes from any consideration the possibility of ensuring that there is a paper trail, a proper basis on which dubious outcomes can be challenged. How can the commission function as anything other than a fig leaf for Government?

The Government's PR campaign is an insult to the intelligence of the people but there is a deeper insult. Last week the courts were left with no choice but to send a brain-damaged, deeply disturbed boy to jail, the worst possible environment for him, because we cannot afford the commitment of resources to build a better environment. Yet, without thinking twice about it, €40 million can be poured down the drain to put electronic voting in place.

Tonight the Minister will repeat the mantra that the Oireachtas decided to implement electronic voting. The Oireachtas decided no such thing. In 2001, this House discussed a Bill that would enable electronic voting to be introduced by ministerial order. The Labour Party and the other Opposition parties voted against the Bill, although it should be recorded that our focus was the spending limits in the same Bill. As so frequently happens, the House was not afforded time on Committee Stage to deal with the electronic voting enabling provision. However, as the Bill passed was an enabling one, no fair-minded person could conclude that it confers authority on the Government to put electronic voting in place without any further consultation. As Deputy Kenny has noted, only yesterday, the Taoiseach defended the Government's proposals on electronic voting and said that it must be all right as he stated, "After all, Ireland is one of the largest exporters of software in the world". The implication is, therefore, that this software must be a good thing.

Of all the defences of electronic voting I have heard, this was the most puzzling. There is no connection whatever between the subject of electronic voting and the export of software and what is more, despite being the largest exporter of software in the world, we are importing all the software necessary for this project. Not only are we importing it, but as I understand, the entire basis of the software will remain a commercial, proprietary secret.

Article 45 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights 1966 guarantees to every citizen the right and opportunity "to vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors". The requirement that the elections be genuine means that the entire electoral process, as Deputy Kenny has said, should be open, transparent and trustworthy.

The declaration of the council of the Inter-Parliamentary Union on the criteria for free and fair elections, dated 26 March 1994, also states, "Furthermore, state authorities should ensure that the ballot is conducted so as to avoid fraud or other illegality, that the security and the integrity is maintained and that ballot counting is undertaken by trained personnel, subject to monitoring and-or impartial verification." It further states, "States should take all necessary and appropriate measures to ensure the transparency of the entire electoral process including, for example, through the presence of party agents and duly accredited observers."

It is the Government's task to reassure the people that all these criteria are met under its proposed electronic voting system. The more it blusters, the more I am convinced that it has something to hide. Frankly, when it comes to counting the votes, I do not trust Fianna Fáil.

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