A panel of experts is to review the e-voting report published yesterday, under proposals to be put to the Cabinet.
Minister for the Environment and Local Government Dick Roche said he would ask the Government to approve the creation of peer review group to analyse the report of the Commission on Electronic Voting (CEV).
He is also proposing a Cabinet sub-committee to co-ordinate the Government response to the report.
Mr Roche said the "obvious and sensible" course of action was look at the full implications of the report - including its recommendations - before deciding on how to proceed.
The CEV report found that while voting machines were safe for use subject to minor modifications and further testing, it could not recommend the software.
It found the security of the computer used for configuring the poll and later counting the votes "is inadequate and needs to be improved".
"Improvements are also required to the security of the methods by which sensitive election data, including votes, are stored, transported and accessed on ballot modules and CDs," the report said.
Mr Roche today noted the report said that only "minor adjustments" were needed.
He refused to comment on press speculation that the changes could cost several million. He also declined to be drawn on how much it would cost to develop new software but pointed out that the existing applications only accounted for €0.46 million of the €52 million cost of the project.
"Correcting it will cost a lot less than scrapping the machines," Mr Roche said.
He said there was a need to improve the existing vote-counting system, pointing out that were 11,000 spoilt votes in the last general election. Seats in many constituencies were decided by margin less than the number of spoilt votes, he noted.
He also criticised Opposition parties for their attack on the Government following the publication of the report; and singled out Fine Gael, saying they have consistently supported e-voting.
"Politicians would want to cop themselves on and stop always looking for short-term gain," Mr Roche said.
The Progressive Democrats are opposed to electronic voting. Party president and Minister for Justice Michael McDowell said today he was "satisfied a lot of issues need to be addressed".
"Nobody wants a system that is tainted in public confidence or with security issues," he said.
But he acknowledged that a better system of vote counting than what is currently available was needed.