Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

I will deal with that. We all like to know from where votes come, but I will blend that with Senator Coghlan's question on secrecy. We are anxious to ensure tallies are available and we are in consultation with the Attorney General's office on what information can safely be provided without endangering the secrecy of the ballot. As the Senator said, the tallyman is not part of the statutory conduct of elections, so it is necessary to ensure protection of the secrecy of the ballot. We are anxious to ensure tallies are available, although not 100% as that would raise questions of secrecy and of the thresholds, which we are examining. There is no difficulty if there are thousands but with lower numbers such as hundreds, there may be a difficulty. Senators can be sure we will try to ensure, in consultation with the Attorney General, that we can continue some type of tallying.

Senator Norris referred to the fun of elections. Elections are not about fun; they are a serious business. Perhaps he was being flippant when he referred to them in that way. Elections are a serious business and we want to ensure they are taken seriously. The Senator also referred to those at home being able to vote. I wish to make it abundantly clear that there will be no voting from home. Voting must take place in the polling station. If voting was to take place from home, it would be on the Internet and by text which, of course, can be hacked. As one of the Senators said, this system is not connected to any system either internally in the station or externally. No hacking can take place. We are a long way from voting on the Internet or by telephone. I think Senator Bannon said people who are abroad should be allowed to vote but that will not happen. People can apply for a postal vote if the nature of their business or illness so requires.

Senator Moylan asked about postal votes. All postal votes will go, as is usual, to the returning officer, the ballot paper in the envelope will be checked as will the identification on it and they will be put aside. There will be an opportunity for the returning officer, his or her officials and representatives of the candidates to witness that. Around the close of voting, those votes will be fed into a machine and they will have their own module as postal votes. The idea of doing that at the last minute is that if it was done earlier in the day — it could physically be done — there would be a question of how the vote was going. Sometimes postal votes can be indicative of the overall voting trend, so they will be counted as normal.

Senator Brian Hayes referred to the primary legislation. I made it clear — we have legal advice on it — that section 48 of the Electoral (Amendment) Act 2002 provides for the use of the system at elections other than Dáil elections. In this case they will be used for European Parliament and local elections, which can be done by way of ministerial order.