Martin Mansergh (Fianna Fail)

Yes. The Minister answered the point and said that, in an election petition, the system can print a ballot paper with each vote cast and mix them, thus enabling a manual count to be conducted. That seems to deal with the matter. I agree with the point made by one of the Senators about not reducing the number of polling stations. There should be an adequate amount of time between each count and the chance of a ten-minute interval. I concede that many things were charming in the past. I enjoyed, 50 years ago, going with a donkey and cart to the creamery, but that does not necessarily mean that that is the way things should be done today.

Senator Norris made technophilia sound almost like necrophilia. If there were a computer crash, I imagine that there would be back-up systems, as there are for most important matters. In the final analysis, I suppose one could order another election in a particular constituency. Electronic counting will be far more accurate. One should not believe that the present system is entirely free from error or abuse. Some examples have been given during this debate of where it was not so. This will be much fairer regarding transfers and so on. I would like the Opposition to stop the partisan politicking, which is unworthy of it.