The chairman of the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs, John Deasy, has denounced Government suggestions that electronic voting could be used in the forthcoming referendum on the EU Constitutional Treaty.
Mr Deasy said yesterday that in a referendum in which voter turnout was hugely important, it would be wrong to use electronic voting.
"People distrust these machines. They are discredited", he said yesterday. "The interim report of the independent commission said there were question marks over them. I don't think it would be wise to even consider using them," he said.
Mr Deasy said the low turnout had contributed to the defeat of the first Nice Treaty, and it would be wrong to risk this again.
He was responding to remarks last weekend by Minister for the Environment Dick Roche who said he had not ruled out the possibility of e-voting being used in the referendum on the EU constitution. No date has been set for the referendum, but there is speculation that it could be held in October of this year.
A spokesman for the commission said yesterday, however, that the next phase of its work was unlikely to be completed before the end of this year, thus making the use of electronic voting in the referendum most unlikely.
The commission is currently waiting for a submission from the Department of the Environment concerning various remedial works which had been suggested by the last report from the commission.
Only when it receives this submission, he said, would the commission be able to begin assessing the security and accuracy of the voting system again.
Mr Roche's remarks at the weekend appeared to envisage an earlier report from the commission.
"There is no reason why it shouldn't be used," he said during a visit to the Meath count centre. "It depends very much on what the e-voting commission comes up with in its report."
He said that the referendum required just a Yes or No answer, making the count process simpler than in an election.
"In many ways the temptations are great but I won't be succumbing to temptations" until "the public confidence is restored."