E-Voting – Arrogance of Department Thwarted
“Arrogance of Department thwarted by City Council”
Statement by Councillor Dermot Lacey
Labour Pembroke Ward
2nd March 2004
“The inclusion of a presentation from the Department of the Environment and Local Government on electronic voting on the agenda for last nights meeting of Dublin City Council in breach of the Standing Orders was blocked by City Councillors following an intervention by former Lord Mayor, Labour Councillor Dermot Lacey.
Councillor Lacey said that the un requested presentation represented a waste of the limited time available to Councillors. The issue of electronic voting is deeply divisive. The Department is on one side of the issue and it is unacceptable that it should seek to use the Council in an attempt to promote their own agenda. It is in short an abuse of this City Council.
The Standing Orders of the Council require that any presentation be approved at a meeting prior to the Council meeting at which it is proposed to take place. No request to make the presentation has ever been made to the Council or to the Group Leaders on the Council.
The Department of the Environment and Local Government bears direct responsibility for the failure to reform Local Government. It is led by a Minister who has denied Dubliners the right to elect their own Lord Mayor. There was no reason whatsoever why the Council should facilitate it with the opportunity, during our limited meeting time, to propagate their diversion of an electronic voting system, to mask a failure to deal with the real issues.”
Further information Dermot Lacey 087-2646960