The Government should get the public's approval in a referendum to be held alongside the local and European Parliament elections before it introduces electronic voting throughout the State, a former Taoiseach, Mr John Bruton, has warned.
In a blunt warning to the Government that it "could not ignore" the combined opposition now displayed by Fine Gael, Labour and the Greens, Mr Bruton said electoral reforms could only be achieved by consensus.
"No government can afford to make changes without that. We would not have done it to Fianna Fáil when we were in office. Changes would not be made to the operation of the Oireachtas without agreement. Election rules are the same," he said.
"It does seem that the Government has made no effort to bring the Opposition on side. Instead, they have adopted a 'we know best' attitude," said Mr Bruton, who dismissed the argument that electronic voting has been on the agenda since 1999.
"It has been around because it has been the Government's baby. They have been in power since 1997. They seem to have a naïve fascination with technology, equating it with modernity and goodness. Just because it is technically sophisticated doesn't mean it is better," he said.
The former Taoiseach rejected claims by Fianna Fáil that he and his Fine Gael running mates in Co Meath had backed the introduction of electronic voting in the May 2002 general election when the Nedap/Powervote system was tested there. "We issued material to assist people in understanding how it worked. There is no basis for this charge. I expressed grave reservations about the matter in advance of the 2002 general election," Mr Bruton declared.
In his private letter sent to the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, on April 8th, 2002, Mr Bruton said that one of the strengths of the existing paper ballot system was "its manifest, almost painful, transparency. Every paper is visible. Every count is gone through manually. Everything can be observed by party workers. At the end, everyone has to be satisfied that things have been done fairly or there will be a demand for a recount.
"Now all that was previously done in the open under the gaze of members of the public will be done in a few seconds inside a computer. This is not as transparent," Mr Bruton told the Taoiseach. He went on: "Ordinary members of the public are not in a position to query errors that there might be in the software. The whole process becomes hidden rather than open."