Brian Cowen (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail)

The number of spoiled votes that are allowed for under the current manual system is greater than the difference between the winning and losing of the last seat in a constituency. The purpose of e-voting was to eliminate that error and to provide a better way of dealing with it. Regardless of the fact that e-voting has legislative support in the House and that the expert group found that the software could have been reworked, the Government decided not to proceed with e-voting, and it is true that this is at a loss to the Exchequer.

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