Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent)
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267. To ask the Minister for Environment, Community and Local Government the occasions, since the start of 2002, on which his Department has facilitated the attendance of civil society organisations at UN and other intergovernmental conferences through the courtesy of accrediting them as part of the Government delegation; and if he will provide a list of names of the individuals in question, their organisational affiliation and the host city, title and year of the conference. [47777/13]

Phil Hogan (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fine Gael)
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The information sought is not readily available in my Department and its compilation would involve a disproportionate amount of time and work.

On the core issue of civil society organisations being facilitated on national delegations for UN and other intergovernmental conferences, my Department tries to be accommodating where warranted or where exceptional circumstances may arise.

The national delegation for such United Nations and intergovernmental conferences is drawn primarily from Government Departments and Agencies that are directly engaged on the policies and issues concerned and that work on the basis of an overall agreed national Government position, representing Ireland.  Exceptions to this are not envisaged, save where some specific element of expertise is required to improve the overall national coverage of issues at the negotiations. Where applications are received from civil society organisations, they are given full and careful consideration, taking into account, inter alia , fairness to all interested observers and options available through the formal channels of admission available to non-governmental organisations.

For example, under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, there are established provisions and arrangements in place for admission of non-governmental organisations to sessions of the Convention bodies as observers. Attendance by observers representing civil society organisations should be pursued through that channel. Routine matters in relation to the provisions and requirements for nomination of civil society members by non-governmental organisations do not in general constitute exceptional circumstances that would warrant inclusion in the national delegation.