Alan Kelly (Tipperary, Labour)
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155. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if his Department organised a briefing for a member of the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade in advance of travel to Azerbaijan in October 2013 to observe the elections there; if so, the name of the person; and the capacity in which he or she travelled. [3300/18]

Simon Coveney (Cork South Central, Fine Gael)
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While this would be for the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade to confirm, it appears to be the case that no member of the Joint Committee in October 2013 travelled to Azerbaijan to observe the elections there. I do understand that an Oireachtas member representing Ireland on the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) was part of a monitoring mission organized by PACE, in line with its very long established practice. Our records do not indicate that a briefing was arranged by the Department, though it is always happy to offer such briefings if requested by a member of the Oireachtas.

In accordance with normal practice, the Department nominated ten observers, none of them a member of the Oireachtas, who observed the elections as part of the OSCE’s ODIHR mission.