Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour)

The pertinent part of the question asked whether electronic voting will be used in next year's local elections. Judging by the Minister's response this afternoon, the answer is "No". His response mentions the commission's 2006 report which contained a number of recommendations and very clear points.

Electronic voting was set up to improve the efficiency of the electoral administration, create minimum maintenance for the pre-election, election and post-election periods and support the positive image in the country of the use of electronic information. On those three fronts, electronic voting has clearly failed.

Has the Minister signed up to this project or not? It has been two years since the commission brought its report before the House and its recommendations are quite clear. If the Minister is not sure about this, I call tell him that last week the Dutch Government, which used the same electronic voting system as us, found that the system it purchased is so faulty that it has now scrapped it and reverted to a pen and paper system. This is the same system which is costing us €500,000 per year, at a subsidised rate I might add. We got the rate reduced to €500,000 per year to store annually. The sum is now approaching almost €16 million in total expenditure to date.

It is unbelievable that the Minister can say that he is looking at it when a report has been on the desk of the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government since 2006. I accept that the report has been on the current Minister's desk since last autumn. Will the Minister clarify whether he is seriously looking at the use of these machines for the local elections next year or is he saying that there will be further examination of this matter?

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