Michael Kitt (Fianna Fail)

Senator Bannon has made his point on the former leader of Fine Gael, Deputy John Bruton, twice today. The Deputy was a candidate in the Meath constituency, where electronic voting was used in the last election. Contrary to what Senator Bannon is saying, the Deputy has been very supportive of electronic voting and urged people to vote.

Let us return to the question of accuracy. During the last general election, different results were obtained following recounts in the Cork and Limerick constituencies. This would certainly not happen if the electronic voting system were used. Similar circumstances obtained in Roscommon some years ago, in which case the count lasted a week. In the most recent election, some counts lasted a week, notably in Cork. This is not acceptable to candidates, the officials working in the count centres and the families and supporters of the candidates. As Senator Brady stated, if we were to have a parallel system, there would be total confusion in closely fought contests for seats because of discrepancies in the results of the two systems. Voting and counting must be accurate, and this is the case with the proposed electronic voting system.