Electronic voting: Minister for the Environment Dick Roche has not ruled out the possibility of e-voting being used in the referendum on the EU constitution.
During a visit to the Meath byelection count centre on Saturday, Mr Roche said he would "have to wait until the e-voting commission has reported."
He said he had not ruled out the possibility of electronic voting being used in the EU referendum. "There is no reason why it shouldn't be used," he said. "It depends very much on when the e-voting commission comes up with its report."
He did not know when the commission would report and did not think they were disposed to meet him "because they want to be independent in their performance and I'm not going to push that."
Pointing out that "the referendum would be just Yes or No", Mr Roche added that "in many ways the temptations are great but I won't be succumbing to temptations" until "the public confidence is restored".
Mr Roche had to make an order to disallow electronic voting in the Meath byelection, as Meath was one of three constituencies along with Dublin North and Dublin Mid-West where e-voting was used as a pilot test in the 2002 general election.
He said "the temptation would have been to use electronic voting to prove a point - that it worked. . . It worked in this constituency before and 85 per cent of the people liked it, when they worked it."
He made the order three weeks ago not to use e-voting in Meath the same day he signed the writ to hold the election.
The Minister dismissed suggestions that the Government would delay holding the referendum until the after the UK voted, so that if Britain rejected the constitution, it would fall automatically without an Irish vote.
