Michael Finucane (Fine Gael)

I compliment Senator Bannon on this amendment, which I second. I spoke on this matter last night, although the decision has been made and we will not have electronic voting at the local and European elections. According to the Government we will not have an election for another two or three years. If electronic voting is to be introduced at that stage, and there is enough time to do so, there is nothing to stop us from having the correct software package in place.

We should not have randomisation for the next election after June. I spoke last night about the injustices involved in randomisation, which will happen again in other elections if we proceed with the current system. Surely the whole objective of introducing electronic voting is not to speed up the vote but to make the count a fair one. There is nothing to stop the Government from making the system fair for the next election. We should not have randomisation because, no matter what type of election we have, there will be close counts and if the Government does not take action it will be criticised in the future for not acting properly.

I fully support the amendment. I would be happy if a commitment were given to get rid of randomisation and I would welcome reassurances from the Minister of State about the next election, which may be a general election.