Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Social Democrats)
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71. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if Irish Aid checked observer profiles held by the EU and the OSCE in the context of the recent election observation competition; the way in which and the number of the applicants selected for the new roster have had observations validated by the EU or the OSCE; the number of observers with five or more missions on their profiles that were not selected for the new roster; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [7157/19]

Ciarán Cannon (Galway East, Fine Gael)
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I refer the Deputy to the response to Parliamentary Question 109 of 19 December 2018, which provided detailed information on the mustering of the new election observation roster, including on the assessment of applications. All potential volunteers were assessed solely on the basis of the information they provided in the application process.

No other information was made available to assessment panels, including EU and OSCE observer profiles, which are held by those organisations and consulted only by the Department when an observer is nominated to a particular mission. In designing the selection process, my Department had contact with both the EU and OSCE to ensure that the process met best international practice for the mustering of potential observers.

The Department has now provided training for the majority of members of the new roster. Security vetting is ongoing. When this process is complete, the Department will consider the information which can be provided regarding the demographics of the new roster, subject to data protection and privacy requirements.