James Bannon (Fine Gael)

I always found the Minister of State to have a good grasp of local and national government. I regret that he is in the passenger seat rather than the driving seat, but it is to be hoped his time will come.

With Ireland holding its own at the top level of the European information technology sector, the introduction of electronic voting is to be welcomed as a logical and essential way forward. Fine Gael is fully committed to such progress, but in this case we are advocating progress with caution. The electronic system the Government is pushing to implement is unfortunately dangerously flawed, with many questions still to be answered. It is not up to the standard demanded by our democracy. We would like all aspects of the system to be referred to an electoral commission.

Fianna Fáil and the PDs have forced through approval for such a system before the next local and European elections through sheer weight of voting numbers at committee level. The system that has been approved is still subject to numerous doubts in the area of security. The move was vigorously opposed by Fine Gael and other members of the Opposition on the Joint Committee on the Environment and Local Government. One of the principal grey areas for the Opposition is the fact that the Government — through the Department whose political head is the director of elections for Fianna Fáil, namely, Deputy Cullen who unfortunately is not here today — is implementing a system in which the other parties have little confidence. Last week, to add insult to injury, an explanatory leaflet for the system, part of an expensive PR exercise by the Government, gave a clear message to the electorate to vote Fianna Fáil. Was it subliminal advertising or blatant manipulation of the system? Either way, the effects are the same. These leaflets have now been withdrawn due to pressure from Fine Gael.

Last week in the Mansion House I was given a demonstration by one of the Minister of State's senior officials on the electronic voting system. I went into the booth and cast my vote for the town council and for the county council. After a minute the demonstrator called on me to vote in the European elections. I replied that I could not. She told me to press the button, but again I said I could not. It was only when she came around and inspected my ballot paper that she realised Fine Gael was not included. This is a total infringement of the secrecy of the ballot, which I hope will not carry over into every polling booth throughout the country. The omission of Fine Gael was no accident. The Minister of State has repeatedly told us that electronic voting is tamper-proof and idiot-proof, but is it Fianna Fáil and PD-proof? We have experience of the many promises made by the Government in the run-up to the last election. The people, therefore, are not entirely confident with the Government. The report compiled by Zerflow Holdings Limited, which the Minister of State did not publish, emphatically states that the system is not tamper-proof. This report was in the Minister of State's hands before the last election, yet the system was partially used in a number of constituencies. As we are dealing with a Government with a track record that does not inspire feelings of trust, it is necessary that there is full transparency and information on this issue before we proceed.

It is unfortunate that voters must assume that errors in the system are likely. I am continually asked for assurances that the system is safe, yet what guarantees can I give? In theory, it is possible to programme the computers to check votes for a particular party and change these votes for another party. Such a system could transfer every fifth vote. The bottom line is that the system is open to intentional manipulation.

It is impossible to verify the safety of the proposed system because the Government has refused to publish the system's source code for a transparent public audit. It is not enough for the Minister of State to be satisfied with the system as planned. At worst, it poses a real threat to democracy and leaves a question mark over its efficiency.

The other areas of concern with the proposed system are the serious delays in the development of the software, the small team of experts involved, including some from the Fianna Fáil Party ranks, and no public scrutiny for the implementation of the statutory counting rules. The process used for testing and modifying the software was not carried out in accordance with best practice. There is a minimum-to-high risk that the system will fail if put into service in the June 2004 elections. The IES computer program to count the votes is still in a state of flux. Some 30 changes have taken place from version 83 in January 2002 to version 115 in September 2003. This indicates the Department and the developers, through the tests, are still changing requirements and finding bugs on a regular basis. It begs the question as to when, if ever, the system will be totally reliable.

If the proposed system is not behaving as one would expect, whether by accident or malicious tampering, the effects on the voting outcome might never be detected. The system must be modified so that a paper record can be made of every vote cast. These records can be used for spot-checks or recounts. As the playwright Tom Stoppard said: "It is not the voting that is democracy, it is the counting."