Ireland will become the laughing stock of Europe if it doesn’t introduce e-voting soon, the Taoiseach said tonight.

THE findings of the Commission on Electronic Voting have been seized on by all sides in the debate as proof of the validity of their position.

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.

THE latest problems with the electronic voting system form “another nail in the coffin of the Government’s claim to competence, good judgment and ministerial capability”, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny said yesterday.

DESPITE the tentative judgment by the Commission on Electronic Voting that it can recommend the machines but not the election management software, the Government’s claim that it was vindicated in spending so much on the system rings hollow.

The independent Government-appointed body that probed electronic voting may have breached its terms of references by sending its report to the Minister for the Environment four days before the Ceann Comhairle received it, it was claimed tonight.

THE Government will today be faced with the decision whether to abandon or persist with electronic voting after it receives a new report on the system.

WATERFORD Fine Gael TD John Deasy is urging the Government to call time on the failed electric voting machines, and has suggested the flogging of them to Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe as one of a number of possible options for their disposal.

The pronouncement by the cross-party Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) that the abandoned e-voting system is a “dead duck” was very apposite, but too late to prevent the wanton waste it was, and still is, even posthumously.

ONE might have thought that those who were responsible for the electronic voting debacle would have learnt some humility from the experience.

ENVIRONMENT Minister Dick Roche yesterday conceded that there up to 500,000 extra names on the electoral register and that the problem will not be fully resolved in time for next year’s General Election.

The controversial electronic voting system is still costing the taxpayer.

THE addition of a paper trail to the Government’s €50m e-voting system would be unacceptable, the company responsible for supplying the controversial machines has said.

THE Government has paid out more than €2 million in PR and advertising fees for electronic voting since the rollout of the system was abandoned.

THE abandonment of electronic voting is only a temporary delay and does not mean the end for the voting changeover, Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said yesterday.

IT never rains, but it pours. The unpredictability of politics was never more in evidence than during this past week.

MARTIN Cullen was accused last night of wasting over €50 million after his electronic voting plans were scuppered by a devastating independent report.

EMBATTLED Environment Minister Martin Cullen is facing an onslaught of intense criticism this morning, with mounting calls for his resignation over his stewardship of electronic voting.

With characteristic disdain, Minister for the Environment Martin Cullen dismissed opposition calls for his resignation after the abandonment of the massively expensive electronic voting system, a project for which he was directly responsible.

The minister’s humiliation is complete, says Political Editor Harry McGee.

WHILE Martin Cullen was eating humble pie, Bertie Ahern was eating his lunch.

AN internationally recognised group of Irish computer experts is demanding an apology from Environment Minister Martin Cullen for branding them as anti-globalisation and lacking in expertise during a Dáil debate on electronic voting.

THE independent watchdog set up to assess the secrecy and accuracy of electronic voting has received a decisive thumbs down on the system from its consultation with the general public.

The Commission on Electronic Voting has received more than 150 submissions on the Government's planned system.