Eoghan Murphy (Dublin South East, Fine Gael)
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132. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade further to Parliamentary Question No. 153 of 4 February 2014, the reason the four criteria carried equal weighting when one criteria, for example experience, is vastly more important than language skills as such supports are generally provided in-country. [6904/14]

Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Further to my previous replies to Parliamentary Questions on this issue, I wish to reiterate the importance that Ireland attaches to participation in international election monitoring missions, particularly in the light of our strong commitment to the promotion of human rights and democracy. Ireland's election observation roster has been put in place to facilitate the deployment at short notice of suitably qualified individuals to participate in international election observation missions, organised in the main by the EU and the OSCE. The EU and the OSCE set the specific skills requirements for election observation missions and make the final call in selecting observers to participate in individual missions. Requirements set for participation include relevant language skills, good knowledge and/or experience of electoral processes, knowledge of human rights and/or governance issues, and relevant regional experience.

Ireland has had very good success in recent years in terms of having nominees selected to participate in missions led by the EU and the OSCE. In order to ensure this continued success, it was critical that a new election observation roster contained the right mix of skills and experience, matching the specific requirements set by the EU and the OSCE. Specific, often difficult, language skills are frequently sought by the EU and the OSCE in organizing missions. The importance of having this as a criterion for inclusion in the new roster is borne out by recent calls to serve on election monitoring missions. In 2013, for example, Irish roster nominees took part in eleven election monitoring missions overseen by the EU. Six of those missions required fluency in a primary language other than English. In the case of the OSCE, while English is the primary language used on missions, knowledge of a second relevant local language is usually indicated as desirable for election observers. The trend for 2014 so far mirrors the 2013 experience.

Given the range of experience and specific skills requested by both the EU and OSCE for participation in election observation missions, I am satisfied that the four criteria selected to assess applications for Ireland's new roster were appropriate and merited equal weighting. The assessment of applications against these four criteria was carried out in a fair and impartial way. I am confident that, given the broad mix of skills and experience across our new roster, Ireland will be in a position to maintain our active participation in international election observation missions into the future.