There will be a paper record of votes cast using electronic voting machines, the Minster for the Environment and Local Government, Mr Cullen said today.
While conceding there was "an element of trust" required from the voter using the controversial system, he said the returning officer at the count centre gets a paper print-out of every vote cast.
We can produce every single ballot paper that was cast in the election ... every ballot can be counted.
Mr Martin CullenIf a High Court judge ordered a paper record of each vote cast, it could be produced, Mr Cullen told RTÉ Radio. "We can produce every single ballot paper cast in the election ... every ballot can be counted," he maintained.
But he dismissed Opposition demands for a vote-receipt system. "The paper trail issue arises primarily because of the PC-based system as opposed to the system we have adopted.
We deliberately took the policy decision in this country to move away from the paper-based system to an electronic voting system," Mr Cullen said.
Dismissing publicly expressed concerns by computer experts about the technology being used, he said the source code for the counting programme had been independently checked.
The Dutch-developed system passed exhaustive tests, taking into account various concerns about power-surges, power-cuts and the use of magnets near machines. The software is "hack-proof", Mr Cullen said.
Opposition parties are furious the Government is pressing ahead with plans to introduce e-voting nationally during the June local European elections. They maintain a fundamental change to the democratic process should have all-party agreement.
Mr Cullen has warned he will guillotine the legislation needed to implement nationwide e-voting if the Opposition attempts to hold up its progress through the Oireachtas.
Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny accused the Government of "unbridled arrogance" and Labour's local government spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore said its handling of the issue was "virtually unprecedented in a modern democracy".
The Government will appoint an independent commission today or tomorrow and publish legislation within weeks to pave the way for the system to be used in June's local and European elections.
The commission must report by May 1st. If it finds the system is not fail-safe then manual balloting will proceed as usual.