Shane Ross (Independent)

I am not totally decided, but I think I regret the introduction of electronic voting. The arguments on both sides are reasonably powerful. What Senator Mansergh said is true. Ultimately, making this issue into a political football is rather silly. Even if it has been abused in its initiation, it will not be abused over the years once established. While it is quite good fun to point out that it was introduced wrongly and that the advertisement was obviously partisan and should not have been exploited that way, in five years electronic voting will not work in favour of one party. I take on board Senator Mansergh's argument that it will be overseen by public servants and therefore be as impartial as anything else they oversee. We do not have any long-term complaints on that score.

However, I believe that the old system had something special. It has nothing to do with technophobia or electronic voting. As the count went on for so long and was so exciting — an adventure in itself — more people participated. I cannot prove that, but neither can anyone prove the contrary. It was a great adventure for the Irish people. We had something special — a PR system that went on and on. It was like watching a long film or series of films, and people came back to it. There is a real danger that, when we introduce electronic voting, we will have lower rather than higher polls. I may be proved wrong, but there is a serious danger, at a time when participation in politics and voting patterns are falling, that this will further undermine the democratic process, because fewer people will participate. The timing is wrong, and it is unfortunate and unnecessary.