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
LGBT rights in the Republic of Ireland On 6 April 2015, the "Children and Family Relationships Bill 2015" was signed into law, amending (among other acts) the "Adoption Act 2010", to enable same-sex couples to jointly adopt children and stepchildren. In June 2017, Leo Varadkar was appointed as Ireland's Taoiseach (Head of Government), and thus became the fourth openly gay head of state/government in the world. Same-sex sexual activity was decriminalised in 1993. This was the result of a campaign by Senator David Norris and the Campaign for Homosexual Law Reform which led to a ruling in 1988 that Irish laws prohibiting male homosexual activities were in