Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

On behalf of the Labour Party, I oppose the taking of Report Stage because the Minister presenting the Bill should no longer be the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government. Last autumn he refused to listen to the views of the Opposition parties and to technical experts who told him then much the same as the Commission on Electronic Voting told him at the end of last week. Had he listened then to what we had to say, we might have made a lot more progress on this issue and it would not have resulted in the taxpayer being charged €52 million for this political adventure. His failure to listen then was a display of arrogance. His spending of €52 million of taxpayers' money was reckless and proceeding with an electronic voting system which the commission has criticised in such stark terms was absolutely irresponsible.

I say to the Minister directly and without personal rancour that since last Friday he should have either resigned his office as Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government or he should have been sacked.

See this speech in context