Dáil Report: The Taoiseach defended the Government's performance on the introduction of electronic voting amid heated and noisy exchanges with opposition parties. Michael O'Regan reports.
Mr Ahern said the commission on electronic voting had confirmed that the selected system could accurately and consistently record voter preferences.
"The commission also stated that experts retained by the commission confirmed that the system accurately and consistently counted votes at the pilot elections, which have already been carried out," he said.
"The commission concluded that there was not sufficient time to carry out comprehensive additional testing to provide sufficient positive assurance on the system before the June elections."
To jeers from the opposition benches, he insisted that the capital investment of €52 million in the project had a lifespan of more than 20 years.
"That is 20 years unused," said Mr Bernard Allen (FG, Cork North Central). "They should be stored in Punchestown."
During the heated exchanges, the Taoiseach was asked by the Fine Gael and Labour leaders if he had been offered or sought the resignation of the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen.
When Mr Rabbitte continued to press the matter, Mr Ahern replied: "No, no, no!" to which Mr Rabbitte replied: "Shame, shame, shame!"
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, said the commission's report had highlighted "the arrogance and incompetence" of the Government and was "a devastating indictment of the Minister for the Environment."
The expensive fiasco represented gross incompetence by the Government collectively and by the Minister, Mr Cullen, on an individual basis.
"The Government is now adopting a classic ostrich-like approach to this report and trying to pretend that the commission was only concerned with a few minor technical points, which can easily be resolved.
"Would the Taoiseach now accept his proposal for electronic voting is dead in the water?" Mr Kenny asked.
He said Mr Cullen had told the Dáil the system was secure and reliable and could be trusted by the people.
The Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, had said the system would be the most accurate and therefore the most democratic system the State ever had. However, the commission had thought otherwise.
Mr Rabbitte said the Taoiseach sometimes convinced him that, if he had been around at the time of the Wall Street Crash, he would have come into the House to say it was good for the economy.
"We know what is in the commission's report.
"Not alone is this ill-fated, arrogant and incompetent experiment buried for June 11th, but these machines are buried for ever."
Mr Rabbitte claimed that the machine was constructed according to an incorrect specification and it could not be re-engineered.
Mr Cullen remarked: "That is incorrect."
Mr Rabbitte said that Mr McCreevy had come into the House to say he thought the opposition was suggesting there were little Fianna Fáil leprechauns, if that was not a tautology, which was something to which the Minister was not unaccustomed, inside the machines.
"It turns out that there were no Fianna Fáil leprechauns inside the machines, but there were Fianna Fáil leprechauns in charge of them," the Labour leader said.