Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 18 November 2004
189 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government if the Commission on Electronic Voting intends to release the results of its initial testing of the equipment acquired by the State for the purposes of electronic voting, in view of the fact that the legal impediments to doing so were removed by the Government in May 2004; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29641/04]
View answer190 Mr. Cuffe asked the Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government the reason a tender has only recently issued for the provision of software assurance and system testing services for electronic voting; and his views on whether such testing should have been carried out prior to the purchase of the equipment. [29642/04]
View answerI propose to take Questions Nos. 189 and 190 together.
Since 2001, my Department has commissioned internationally accredited institutes-companies to carry out extensive testing of the voting machine equipment and election management and count software associated with the introduction of electronic voting and counting in Ireland. All the test results, including an architectural and code review of the software, endorsed use of the Nedap-Powervote system and these test reports have been made publicly available.
The Commission on Electronic Voting, CEV, recently issued a request for tenders as part of its ongoing work to assess the secrecy and accuracy of the planned electronic voting and counting system. The CEV is an independent body which was established by the Oireachtas. My Department does not have details of its proposed activities in fulfilment of its mandate and I have no function in relation to its work.
