Electronic voting in the Republic of Ireland the Government of Ireland established the Independent Commission on Electronic Voting and Counting at Elections to examine the proposed system. It was dissolved in 2006. The Commission issued a series of reports reviewing the proposed system and comparing it to the existing electoral system: "The Commission can recommend the voting and counting equipment as follows: The prime issue was the lack of verifiability by the absence of an audit mechanism or verified paper trail. The former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern had defended the flawed system in the Dáil, bemoaning the use of ""stupid old pencils"". The voting machines bought by the
Ireland in the Eurovision Song Contest 2008 position and going through the whole process." RTÉ reached a consensus and agreed to change the selection process and revert to the "National Song Contest" format that was used in Ireland before 2001, resulting in seven Irish winners. Eurosong 2008 was the name of the Irish national final that replaced 2007's selection process for 2008. An open call for songs by RTÉ was conducted, with the deadline for submissions set at 23 January 2008. A judging panel, including Irish Eurovision winner Linda Martin, reduced the shortlist of entries from the 150 songs submitted to RTÉ to just six entries. Of