Government blunders on e-voting and road routes

THE Taoiseach seems to think little of the humble pencil or, indeed, of people admitting they are wrong and changing their minds.

In the Dáil recently, he made the astounding statement in relation to e-voting that our “silly old system is outdated”, that we should “correct the software and move forward” and that we are a “laughing stock with our silly old pencils”.

Last year, he also referred to pencils in relation to the Kildare bypass, where a rare snail’s habitat was discovered, and the highly controversial M3 in Co Meath.

At the time, Mr Ahern said: “In other countries, they just get on with things. If you take a pencil and account for things like snails and archaeology, you will never do anything.”

If someone did use a pencil for the route of the M3, it must have been on the back of an envelope, late at night, in a pub. The pencil obviously then slipped and the route which should have been most avoided was chosen by mistake.

There is no other explanation for such an idiotic route — or is there?

The Taoiseach also faulted the opposition parties for changing their minds on the issue of e-voting.

Unlike him, they had the sense to listen to the experts.

Finally, in other countries they do not “just get on with things”. In Gran Canaria when the route of a major highway unearthed a Guanche graveyard containing 1,000 skulls, the Spanish government moved the location of the road.

The Irish Government should put its hands up and admit that a monumental planning mistake has been made or put their trust in those great voting machines and also hold an e-referendum on the round-the-bend route of the proposed M3.

Muireann Ní Bhrolcháin

58 Laurence Ave

Maynooth

Co Kildare