Electronic voting machines for elections in Ireland were used on a trial basis in 2002, but plans to extend it to all polling stations were put on hold in 2004 after public opposition and political controversy.
Socialist Party TD Joe Higgins said electronic voting should be abandoned, and he claimed, a lack of transparency and the new system could be open to "radical manipulation.
"[3] Following the 2002 trial of the machines, in 2004 the government undertook plans to introduce a nationwide electronic voting system for the local and European Parliament elections.
[12] In 2018, John Paul Phelan, the Minister for Housing, Planning, and Local Government responded to a Dáil question from Shane Cassells about online voting.
[13] Later in 2018, Minister of State for Local Government and Electoral Reform John Paul Phelan told reporters that there is no question of the pencil and the ballot paper being removed from the Irish election process.