The manufacturers of the State's electronic voting machines have warned that all 7,500 voting machines would have to undergo significant work at an unknown cost if the recommendations of the Commission on Electronic Voting are to be implemented.
The Government has suggested that the recommendations relating to the voting machines would require minor work.
Similar work to that suggested in the report cost nearly €2,500 per machine during an upgrade of 1,000 of the machines three years ago, although no estimate has been given on the cost of the current work.
This work would be in addition to the replacement of vote-counting software on the central PCs in the system, which the commission found to be substandard, and which could cost between €3 million and €5 million.
The report, published last Tuesday, said the machines were of "good quality and design" but that changes to their controls and bodywork were needed to make them more secure and easier to use. It also advised modifications to the software in the machines.
Henk Steentjes, chief technical officer of Nedap, the Dutch company that made the system, said a cost could not be put on the work required, but that it could be significant, because every machine would have to be changed.
"There is a magnifying factor, even with a small change," he said. "You have [ more than] 7,000 identical machines, these are stand-alone units, and any change that is made has to be made 7,000 times."
Changes to the software require technicians to open each machine, remove the existing software and replace it with the updated version.
"You then have to go through a very thorough test of the software," Mr Steentjes said.
The recommendations to change the user controls on the machines, and to make the machines easier to identify as being genuine e-voting machines, would also require the same type of complex process, he said.
"In its conclusions, the commission says the security issues [ relating to the machines] are of a minor importance, so the cost of any changes has to be seen against that and against the money already invested, and I hope people will take a balanced view," Mr Steentjes said.
The system has cost €52 million to date, €46 million of which was spent on the machines.
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Mary Harney has said she was in strong agreement with the commission's recommendation for an independent electoral commission.
"I think how elections are organised should not be a matter for the government of the day or the political system. It should be done on an independent basis."