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
More Irish than the Irish themselves More Irish than the Irish themselves "More Irish than the Irish themselves" (, ) is a phrase used in Irish historiography to describe a phenomenon of cultural assimilation in late medieval Norman Ireland. The descendants of Hiberno-Norman lords who had settled in Ireland in the 12th century had been significantly Gaelicised by the end of the Middle Ages, forming septs and clans after the indigenous Gaelic pattern, and became known as the Gall or "Old English" (contrasting with the "New English" arriving with the Tudor conquest of Ireland). The Statutes of Kilkenny, 1366, complained that " ... now many English