Bertie Ahern
Defends make-up of commission
The Taoiseach has defended the make-up of the newly established electronic voting Commission.
During heated exchanges in the Dáil today, Mr Ahern challenged anyone who believed that Fianna Fáil was manipulating the voting software to say it outside the House.
But Opposition parties have continued to claim they should have been consulted before the Commission was established.
Meanwhile, an Oireachtas Committee has agreed to invite the Electronic Voting Commission to meet with it to discuss the issue. However, the Environment Committee rejected a suggestion that technical experts who raised concerns about the system should be recalled.
The experts, including computer consultant Joe McCarthy, posed 41 questions to the Department of the Environment before Christmas, which were answered in recent days. But Government members of the Committee voted down a call by Fine Gael's Bernard Allen for the experts to be recalled to give their reaction to the answers.
