AN OIREACHTAS committee is set to examine whether the country’s much-derided e-voting machines should finally be scrapped.

TRANSPORT Minister Martin Cullen has finally conceded he got it wrong on electronic voting.

THE latest problems with the €52 million e-voting system make a mockery of previous Government insistences that it was secure and reliable.

THE real fiasco that would have resulted if the Government had got its way and used a flawed electronic voting system that has cost €52 million so far was revealed last night.

IT appears that immigration and its impact on the Irish labour market is set to be as big an issue in the first months of 2006 as it was in the last months of 2005.

ON October 7 you published a letter from IFA president John Dillon in response to my open letter to the three IFA presidential candidates.

THE former British minister for Europe, Denis MacShane, tells a good story from one of those negotiating sessions in Brussels where European leaders advanced, bit by bit, the creation of the new Europe.

SO if you are from Portugal, your spouse is French, you were married in Rome and you are living in Ireland — where do you get divorced?

EVERY home will soon receive a booklet explaining the European Constitution in a bid to significantly improve public awareness, the Government confirmed yesterday.

TAOISEACH Bertie Ahern has said he believes the new EU constitution has a strong chance of being passed by all 25 member states.

MOST of the European decision-making mechanism is now on vacation but in September we will see what portfolios will be allotted to Charlie McCreevy, Peter Mandelson and their various new Commission colleagues.

I WELCOME Foreign Minister Brian Cowen’s admission (Irish Examiner, October 21) that Ireland is not a neutral country.

IRISH troops should be able to take part in European Union peacekeeping missions without a mandate from the United Nations, Defence Minister Michael Smith said yesterday.

I AM deeply concerned

JUSTIN BARRETT’S No to Nice campaign received over €30,000 in donations, according to a report from the election watchdog.

By Noel Whelan I SPENT one morning last week in the company of a group of journalists, officials, academics and europhiles listening to a presentation of data and analysis arising from an opinion poll.

Pat Cox MEP, President of the European Parliament, received uproarious applause when he was presented with the 2002 European Movement / Aer Rianta European of the Year Award by Taoiseach Bertie Ahern at a gala reception in the Shelbourne Hotel, Dublin, today.

RACIST attacks increased by 60% in the second-half of last year according to a Government watchdog.

The company behind the confidential Zerflow report into the electronic voting system used during the Nice referendum have said they are standing by their findings.

Fine Gael has demanded the Government disclose the details of a report submitted to the Department of the Environment, which showed that the electronic voting system used in the Nice referendum, was not fool-proof.

I WISH new Labour leader, Pat Rabitte, well in his aim of building a strong left-wing opposition in Ireland – for the first time since James Connolly’s death.

Electronic voting across Ireland will lead to a much more efficient delivery of poll results, a Government minister today said.

Electronic voting is to be introduced nationwide in 2004.

Ireland has reversed last year’s shock referendum vote against the Treaty of Nice plan for expanding the European Union.

Enda Kenny has said that a number of lessons have been learned from the Nice Referendum this time around.

Polling stations are due to open at 9am today for voting in the second Nice Treaty referendum.

THE Government is worried that a low turnout in Saturday's referendum could result in the Nice Treaty being lost again.

LAWS requiring groups campaigning in referenda to say where they get their money are to be examined, Environment Minister Martin Cullen said yesterday.

An opinion poll published this morning has predicted a probable 'Yes' vote in the re-run of the Nice Treaty referendum this Saturday.

THE Greens yesterday accused the Yes to Nice campaign of scaremongering over the economic consequences of a rejection of the treaty.

THE Catholic Bishops backed the Nice Treaty yesterday, stating there was a stronger case for voting in favour than against.

The Green Party has accused the Government of attempting to deceive the electorate in relation to Irish neutrality in the run up to this month’s Nice referendum.

THE Government is expected to announce tomorrow that the double payment given to social welfare recipients at Christmas in recent years will be paid again this year.

The 'Yes' campaigners in the Nice referendum are now getting desperate, according to the Green Party.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs says that a "yes" vote in the Nice referendum is essential if we are to safeguard jobs and foreign investment here.

The Small Firms Association has claimed that thousands of jobs will be lost if voters repeat last year’s rejection of the Nice Treaty.

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Brian Cowen, says that a ‘Yes’ vote in the Nice referendum will give the strongest protection ever to our neutrality.

President Mary McAleese says she will not be commenting on how people should be voting in the upcoming Nice referendum.

Campaigning on the Nice referendum continues today with news conferences being held by both sides.

THE only reason I can imagine for voting in favour of the Nice referendum is its potential for encouraging a European superstate which might balance an out-of-control American superstate.

THE only reason I can imagine for voting in favour of the Nice referendum is its potential for encouraging a European superstate which might balance an out-of-control American superstate.