Dick Roche (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)

Governments in different jurisdictions, including the UK, will adopt varying approaches to electoral issues according to their own circumstances and priorities at any given time. For example, the UK operates a first past the post electoral system and it is not advocated in this House that the UK should be an exemplar for us in this regard.

The Government decision in February 2000 to move to electronic voting and counting in Ireland aimed at securing a broad range of identified benefits compared to the current manual arrangements, including more democratic outcomes through the minimisation of invalid votes and the more accurate counting of votes, provision of a higher level of service to the public, greater flexibility and speed in the voting and counting processes, and increased use of modern information and communications technologies. The decision followed extensive research on electronic voting systems and experiences in other countries and the trial conducted in Ireland about which, it will be recalled, the main Opposition party was most enthusiastic.

The Electoral (Amendment) Act 2004, which confirms the use of electronic voting and counting at Irish elections, maintains the mandate from the Government and the Oireachtas to work towards implementation of electronic voting and counting. Accordingly, a programme of further assessment, testing and validation of the electronic voting and counting system is under way to address issues raised by the Commission on Electronic Voting and demonstrate that the system operates reliably, securely and accurately. As part of this programme and following an open procurement process, my Department appointed consultants in July 2005 to undertake a security and risk assessment of all aspects of the system. This work is now well under way and will be completed as soon as possible.

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