Madam, - The Government proposes to replace a system that is open, transparent and auditable with a system which is none of these.
The the suppliers of the system say they have never lost a vote in 15 years. This is simply an assurance that the number of votes counted was equal to the number of votes cast - not an assurance that they reflected the wishes of the voters.
Each of the 7,000 machines will have to be individually programmed. Through human error or design, pressing a button beside candidate A could easily result in a vote for candidate B. And, despite statements made by the Nedcap representative, the system proposed for use in June has never been used before. The latest version (version 121) has been modified 28 times since the "pilot" exercise in 2002 (version 93).
Why was it modified? Because the software contained errors. Have all the errors in the software been found and eliminated? No. This is acknowledged in the Government's information website, where the risk of the system producing an incorrect result is judged to be "small, but difficult to precisely quantify".
The Minister should consult his own Department's IT experts and ask them the following questions: Would they roll out a new business-critical system without a significant period of parallel running? (This would not be possible in an election). Would they entrust a business-critical system to stand-alone PCs? In an organisation with 7,000 PCs, how many are out of service on a given day? How often do PCs crash with loss of data? I think he will find the answers sobering.- Yours, etc.,
PAUL HOLDEN, Howth Summit, Co Dublin.
Madam, - I am appalled at the arrogance and ignorance of the Taoiseach when he expressed annoyance at international criticism of the e-voting proposals (The Irish Times, February 17th). He says: "We should not need international experts to tell us because we export more \ to these countries than they ever created themselves."
The fact is that our position as the world's largest software exporter is due largely to localisation and repackaging of software produced in the US!
I seem to recall that Ireland was once the world's largest exporter of tennis balls; look at that industry now! - Yours, etc.,
DONNCHA Ó CRÓINÍN, Killincarrig, Greystones, Co Wicklow.