Seanad report: Fine Gael intends to use a parliamentary devise in an attempt to have the issue of electronic voting put to the people in a referendum. Mr Brian Hayes, the party leader in the House, warned he would seek to have Article 27 of the Constitution invoked if the Government forced through legislation for the use of e-voting in the June elections.
He would be asking that a majority of Seanad members and at least one third of the Dáil membership agree to petition the President not to sign the Bill into law, but to put the measure directly to the people so they could decide. Mr Hayes said that Article 27, which had never been used since the adoption of the Constitution, referred specifically to issues of fundamental national importance. The people should have the final say on e-voting, not some "arbitrary minister". The Progressive Democrats should talk to their former colleague, Minister Cullen and ask him to stop the collision course with other members and parties which he had embarked upon.
Referring to an appearance by Junior Minister, Mr Noel Ahern, on RTÉ Radio last Tuesday night, Mr Hayes said he believed the Minister had given further ammunition to those opposed to the Government proposals because of his performance on that programme. "Yesterday, the Taoiseach showed himself to be at sixes and sevens on this issue."
Mr Joe O'Toole (Ind) said he felt that the Government plans were clearly becoming a matter of growing concern to people. It now appeared that under them we could not have true proportional representation. "It was absolutely embarrassing listening to the Minister on RTÉ last night. You wouldn't hear it in a pantomime, a Government Minister saying these were not computers, these were voting machines; a Government Minister not able to answer simple questions about it."
Mr Brendan Ryan said: "We don't trust electronic voting sufficiently in the Houses of the Oireachtas not to keep a paper record, verified by four people, but we're telling the electorate out there that they can't have it. I want to know why we're so much different from the electorate outside."