The company responsible for a report questioning the integrity of electronic voting has urged the Government to act on its recommendations in order to maintain public confidence in the system.
The Zerflow Electronic Voting Report, commissioned by the Department of the Environment and Local Government, pointed to a number of flaws in the current system that could lead to votes being tampered with.
The report showed that keys for the voting machines could be duplicated at shopping centre key cutters and fake ballots can be taped to the front panel of the voting machine.
The Department of the Environment, who intend rolling the system out to all constituencies for the 2004 local and European elections, have rejected the criticism.
A spokesman said similar systems were used in Germany and Holland and that only a deliberate attempt by polling staff could lead to vote tampering.
But Zerflow Business Development Manager, Mr Tony Geraghty, today issued a statement urging the Department to act on the report's recommendations.
"The importance of integrity in this system cannot be underestimated so as not to undermine voter confidence. It is important that the Department of the Environment implement the recommendations as outlined in the Zerflow report, in order to restore full credibility to the electronic voting process," he said.
His company has recommended that presiding officers at polling stations should require a smart card and a personal identity number to turn on machines.
Zerflow is a Dublin-based company specialising in technological security. Details of its confidential report were revealed by RTÉ yesterday after a Freedom of Information request.