The Taoiseach has said the Government will pursue its plan to introduce the controversial electronic voting system once the issues raised by an independent commission last week have been dealt with.
The Government dropped the plan to use the Nedap electronic system in the June 11th local and European Parliament elections after the Commission on Electronic Voting (CEV) said it could not adequately test the system in time to recommend its use in June.
Mr Ahern denied the €52 million spent so far on the system was a waste of public money. However, Labour and Fine Gael repeated their calls for the Minister for the Environment to resign in the wake of last week's report.
Mr Ahern told the Dail this afternoon the Government would continue the operation of the electronic voting system and would abide by the recommendations of the commission. He defended the capital expenditure on the system, arguing that it had a 20-year investment lifespan.
He said the commission's conclusions were not based on any finding that the system will not work.
Mr Ahern said the system had "many times" been tested internationally and that the commission would have the time it needed to test the system here. "If it proves anything is wrong, I will be surprised, but I will accept it," he said.
The Taoiseach said it would be "wrong" for Ireland to run away from the use of such modern systems.
The Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, accused the Government of "extravagance and abuse of public privilege" in pursuing the €52 million system. He said if the Minister for the Environment had done this in any company, he would be "sacked forthwith". The minister had "flagrantly abused the public purse" and now had no credibility, Mr Kenny said.
Mr Kenny said the money spent on the electronic voting system would have bought some 60,000 computers for schools or taken many people off hospital waiting lists.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said he believed the €52 million of taxpayers' funds spent on the system had gone "down the drain".
He said the Taoiseach sometimes convinced him that if he had been around at the time of the Wall Street Crash he would come into the House and convince it that it was "good for the economy".
Mr Rabbitte said there was no flaw in the machinery, but that the flaw was that it had been constructed to the wrong specification and could not now be re-engineered. The views of the Opposition and of various academics and IT experts had not just been dismissed, but "ridicule and scorn" had been poured on their heads.
He accused the Minister for the Environment of "incompetence and ignorance of the highest calibre".
The Labour spokesman on the environment and local government Mr Eamon Gilmore said Mr Cullen's decision to pursue the system was "reckless" and "absolutely irresponsible". He said the minister should have either resigned or been sacked since the CEV report was published.
Mr Dan Boyle TD of the Green Party said the minister was either guilty of "gross arrogance or of technological illiteracy".