Accusation of 'jack-booted tactics' over voting panel

The Government was yesterday accused of "jack-booted tactics" to block members of an expert panel on electronic voting from being recalled by the Oireachtas Committee on the Environment.

Opposition members of the committee sought to recall the experts after the Department of the Environment said it could not provide detailed answers to some of their questions for reasons of "security", "commercial sensitivity", or "intellectual property rights".

In the course of a heated debate, a Fianna Fáil TD for Limerick West, Mr John Cregan, accused Fine Gael's environment spokesman, Mr Bernard Allen, of "telling lies".

The committee did agree, however, to invite the Government-appointed commission on electronic voting to attend a meeting at which members' concerns could be discussed.

Proposing that the expert panel be brought back to address the response of the Department of the Environment to concerns about accuracy and fairness of the proposed electronic voting system, Mr Allen told members it was clear the Minister for the Environment, Mr Cullen, had contacted Government deputies in a bid to stifle the committee.

The accusation led to an angry riposte from Mr Cregan, who said: "You are telling lies."

Mr Cregan repeatedly used the word "lie" and "lies" as Mr Allen continued that "there was a diktat that came from the Minister that day, the record speaks for itself".

The Labour Party environment spokesman, Mr Eamon Gilmore, said the kernel of the problem was that on December 11th last the committee had voted unanimously to ask Mr Cullen not to spend further money on the electronic voting proposals pending clarification of some points.

Mr Gilmore recalled that on December 18th the expert panel attended the committee for an expected full day's hearing on electronic voting issues.

He added: "What happened here on December 18th was quite remarkable. Out of the blue, and without prior notice, the Government members proposed a motion endorsing electronic voting, and the meeting ended."

Mr Gilmore added that the following day, December 19th, Mr Cullen signed a contract with a private company, worth, he said, €20 million, for the supply of electronic voting machines.

Fine Gael TD Mr Pádraic McCormack told the committee the Government members had facilitated the Minister.

However, Fianna Fáil TD Mr Billy Kelleher accused the Opposition members of prevaricating for political ends. He said "if we drag these people back in we will undermine the confidence of the public".

He added that the proposed voting system had been piloted during live elections. "Not one person came in here and challenged those results."

Referring to the motion adopted on December 18th, Mr Kelleher said "this committee has made a decision.

"We are in March, and we have an election in June. If we have more opinion from experts we will then have more officials back. It would completely undermine the independent committee and do democracy a complete dis-service. All the evidence suggests that electronic voting works, and has worked in this country".

Mr Allen's motion to recall the expert panel was defeated by nine votes to six.