David Norris (Independent)

I was against electronic voting from day one. There was never any public demand for it. In fact, the public did not want it and the Minister accepted that on the wireless yesterday. He said the Irish public never asked for electronic voting and did not want it. It was a gimmick that simply did not work. It was a failure. As a result, the Irish people have lost confidence in electronic voting. The report states that something could be cobbled together and perhaps that is so. However, I heard an IT specialist say yesterday that because of the relationship between the software and the hardware, which I do not understand because it is very complex, they do not know what new problems will emerge.

In light of the fact that the Irish people have lost confidence and that increased participation was not demonstrated anywhere because of electronic voting, why not return to the old system which worked and gave people a human interest in politics? It was also indicated on the radio yesterday that the machines could be sold to the city of New York, where they could be used.