The Government is to appoint an independent commission within days and publish legislation within weeks to ensure electronic voting goes ahead as planned in June's local and European elections.
After a surprise Cabinet decision yesterday to press ahead with the controversial system, Fine Gael and Labour condemned the Government for trying to change the voting system without Opposition support. However, the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, said he was determined to introduce the new system on schedule, with several Government sources yesterday dismissing the objections to the voting method as "mischievous".
Fine Gael leader Mr Enda Kenny said the Government had "failed abysmally" to win public support for the proposed system and should postpone its introduction.
Labour's spokesman on the environment, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said it was unprecedented in modern democracy for a government "to make a fundamental change to our electoral system without the consent of the Opposition parties".
After a detailed briefing by Mr Cullen yesterday, the Government set itself a tight timetable to get legislation published and passed by the Oireachtas in time for the June 11th elections.
There were some doubts in Government circles before the Cabinet meeting over whether e-voting would go ahead as planned. The decision to go ahead and the strong support for it expressed later by the Taoiseach in the Dáil were seen as significant achievements for Mr Cullen.
The Opposition promised last night to continue raising their objections when the legislation is published.
Mr Cullen said last night that while he would prefer not to curtail debate by imposing a guillotine, he would do so if necessary. "You can't go on forever on any piece of legislation," he said.
He said he accepted that the recent controversy may have eroded voter confidence in the new system, and he regretted this. The new commission was intended to allay public concern, he added.
Mr Cullen told reporters last night that the commission was not to consider different systems but to examine the system already agreed by the Government.
"We have a system, a specific system. They will have to satisfy themselves as to the accuracy and security of the system."
"If the commission came back and said we don't believe this system does what it is supposed to do, then we would not be in a position to proceed with it," he said.
He dismissed the complaint that the new system will not allow voters to spoil their votes if they wish to. The Government's aim was to facilitate those who wanted to vote, he said.
"There is not going to be a spoiled votes system." He said this system had already undergone extensive independent testing, but the new commission could carry out its own tests if it wants to.
The Government will announce the membership of the commission today or tomorrow.
The commission is to make recommendations by May 1st on the introduction of electronic voting and counting for the European and local elections on June 11th, 2004.
It may then make later reports after the June elections identifying "any desirable further developments of the electronic voting and counting system".
Mr Kenny accused the Government of "unbridled arrogance" in trying to force through their plans for a system "that has not secured the confidence of the main political parties in Dáil Éireann, e-security experts, academics and most importantly the public who will have to use the new machines".
Mr Gilmore said "there was no demand from the public for the scrapping of the old trusted, and reliable system of voting".