Minister's reaction: The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, yesterday insisted that electronic voting would be introduced in Ireland in the future, but conceded that the abandonment of its planned introduction in next month's elections represented a "bad day" for him.
Speaking to reporters in Leinster House yesterday, he rejected claims that the Government had "rushed" the issue. However, "on the basis of this report, the Government could not possibly proceed with electronic voting".
He pointed to the commission's statement that it had made no finding that the system did not work. He said the commission had raised "some technical aspects" and "the important thing is whatever needs to be done to ensure public confidence should be done".
The Minister said that "a tremendous amount of testing" of the system had been done, despite the commission's finding that some aspects of it had not been tested adequately and others had not been tested at all. Mr Cullen said he was happy to give the commission more time to carry out the testing it wanted.
He refused to predict whether the system would have been approved and would have achieved the required level of public confidence in time for the next general election, possibly in 2006 or 2007. The total cost so far of the e-voting project has been some €50 million, of which €42 million was spent on the voting machines. These machines had a 20-year life span, he said, and "I expect that we will be using e-voting in Ireland."
Despite the abandonment of the June introduction, he insisted there was "genuine commitment across the Government to go with e-voting."
But Mr Cullen added: "If we can't find a methodology of ensuring there is absolute public confidence in this, then we are not going to be able to deliver it." He said he did not accept that he or the Government had displayed "arrogance" in pressing ahead with its plans despite Opposition and expert criticism.
The Minister also said that the Commission report disproved the Opposition claims when it was set up that it would be a creature of the Government.
"There is a 'hands up' from me on this," he said. "You win some, you lose some. You are tested when you get issues that do not go the way you planned".