The Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, has sought to dismiss a damning report by the independent panel on electronic voting as "a bad day" for himself.
The arrogance of the Minister is breathtaking, given the fundamental importance of the issue for our democratic system. Having championed an unproven and flawed voting mechanism, wasted public money and rejected reasonable arguments for modification, caution and delay, Mr Cullen should more properly consider his own position in Government.
But the buck doesn't stop only with Mr Cullen. The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and other Cabinet members were fully aware of the reservations of electronic experts and the opposition parties in the Dáil because of technical concerns and the absence of an audit trail. Rather than delay the introduction of the system until it could be modified to meet those concerns, however, the Government engaged in a concerted rush to judgment. Its behaviour in that regard and its rejection of practical advice from interested bodies has unfortunate echoes in the manner in which it is now dealing with a Constitutional referendum on citizenship rights.
The panel appointed by the Government to report on the secrecy and accuracy of the proposed electronic voting system has made a good decision under severe pressure. In spite of reservations by opposition politicians about its impartiality and the restricted nature of its terms of reference, panel members headed by Mr Justice Matthew P Smith of the High Court, found comprehensively against the introduction of the system at this time.
The panel reported that while the computer software had been updated many times in recent years, the full system had not been rigorously tested. It identified an error in the count software for the distribution of surpluses; it spoke of possible interference with the machines and concluded it was easy to bypass security measures and gain control of constituency counts. And while its terms of reference did not include the issue of an audit trail, it found the absence of this safeguard would require a higher standard of testing.
Mr Cullen and the Taoiseach must have been aware of at least some of these potentially disastrous shortcomings. Yet they reassured the Dáil and members of the public that the system had been fully tested and was perfectly reliable and secure. The Government got it wrong. It rushed to spend at least €40 million on electronic equipment and was determined to use it at the earliest opportunity. It must now reassure a concerned electorate by modifying the voting machines to provide for a paper audit.