Eamon Gilmore (Dún Laoghaire, Labour)

The criticisms involved both the software of the machines and counting system software. The report published by the Labour Party last autumn was rubbished by the Minister because its authors were members of the party and declared themselves to be such. The Labour Party report identified the very issues referred to in section 4.5 of the commission's report. The authors of the Labour Party report made four or five particular recommendations, one of which was that there should be a full end-to-end test of the system. This is precisely the same as the commission's recommendation of an independent end-to-end test. The Labour Party report recommended that the introduction and operation of electronic voting should be the responsibility of an independent body. In essence, that is what is contained in the second, third and fourth bullet points of the commission's recommendation. I will return to these points when I respond to the Minister.

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