Labour and Fine Gael have called on the Minister for the Environment to resign after recommendations in an independent report resulted in the scrapping of plans to introduce electronic voting in June.
The Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said this evening that Mr Cullen should be "removed from office".
"This Commission was only established following a joint Fine Gael/Labour/Green Party motion in the Dáil. Had it not been for that pressure, along with concerned independent IT experts who voiced their concerns in the media, the Government would have pressed ahead with a flawed system of voting in the June elections," Mr Kenny said.
"On the three headings of testing, accuracy and secrecy, the Minister for the Environment's system has failed completely. Instead of listening to other political parties and to independent experts he consistently and viciously denigrated all opposition. His incompetence has only been exceeded by his arrogance. He now has no credibility as a Government minister."
Mr Kenny said the fate of our electoral system "can no longer be left in the hands of Minister Cullen", who is also Fianna Fáil's director of elections for the local elections.
The Fine Gael leader also called for the current Electoral (Amendment) Bill 2004 to be withdrawn from the Oireachtas. Mr Kenny said the Taoiseach should give a commitment to establish an independent Electoral Commission which would be responsible for the running of all future elections, including the introduction of an electronic voting system which can enjoy complete public trust and support.
This new Electoral Commission would combine the functions currently carried out by the Department of the Environment, the Constituency Commission and the Referendum Commission. A Fine Gael Amendment to the current Electoral Act proposing this was defeated.
Mr Eamon Gilmore, Labour's spokesman on the environment and local government, said the report of the Commission on Electronic Voting had vindicated the party's serious concerns about the plan.
He said the document was "a damning indictment" of Mr Cullen's political judgment. "The Commission finds against the system and, by implication, the Minister under each one of its terms of reference," he said.
"There is clearly now no basis on which electronic voting can be used in the local and European elections and the report raises very serious questions about the political judgement of the Minister and his cabinet colleagues."
Mr Gilmore said Mr Cullen had "totally ignored" all the valid concerns raised about the system of electronic voting, not just by the opposition parties, but also by "virtually every technical expert who expressed a view.
"Not only did the Minister insist on proceeding with this project in the face of the concerns expressed by technical experts, he spent, so far, more than €52 million of taxpayers' money on a system that cannot be used in the local and European elections and which may never be suitable to be used."
Mr Gilmore said the Minister had "no option" but to tender his resignation.