Pat Gallagher (Donegal South West, Fianna Fail)

The first part of amendment No. 1 reflects what will happen when the Bill is enacted and, consequently, I hope Senator Quinn will accept my undertaking that the commencement order will reflect this point.

With regard to the second part of the amendment, the commission's terms of reference in Schedule 5, together with sections 21 and 22, state the commission's reports will comprise recommendations on the secrecy and accuracy of the system. The Government decided not to use the system at the polls next month in line with its commitment to accept the commission's recommendations. We must await the publication of the commission's next report on which the commission based its conclusion that it was unable to make a positive decision. One might ask why the Government should proceed with the legislation but one of the main reasons for doing so is to give statutory effect to the commission so that it can report. Given the Government's commitment, which is being honoured in regard to the elections in June, no Government would insist on using a system if the commission expressed dissatisfaction with it. It is not necessary to have the second part of the amendment included in the Bill.

The same applies to amendment No. 2. The procedure proposed in subsection (9) is the same as that generally used for commencement orders for many years and there is no need to change it. I agree with Senator Quinn that this is important legislation, but we are doing what is normally done across the board.

With regard to amendment No. 10, there is no constitutional recognition of political parties for the purpose of enacting or implementing legislation. The Opposition parties have all indicated they agree with the use of electronic voting and counting. While there may be differences regarding the detail, the principle is generally accepted. If it was required by law that an issue had to be agreed by all parties in all its aspects, that would be a recipe for ensuring change probably would never take place. Even if the Government was to accept the amendment, the Independent Members who represent various institutions would be ignored. That is probably an inadvertent omission, as Senator Brady said. The same amendment was tabled yesterday and reference was made to ignoring the Seanad then. Even if it was intended, I would not accept it. I gave consideration to Senator Quinn's amendments overnight but my position is still the same.