Written answers

Tuesday, 15 December 2020

Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade

Election Monitoring Missions

Photo of Patrick CostelloPatrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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292. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the measures his Department takes to capture information on disability provided by election observers; and the way in which the data collected in the EU and Organization for Security and Co-operation in European, OSCE, profiles, the only criteria for selection of election observers, is incorporated in his Department's selection of observers. [43062/20]

Photo of Patrick CostelloPatrick Costello (Dublin South Central, Green Party)
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293. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the legal rights in regard to disability possessed by persons serving as election observers who have been nominated by his Department; the number of disabled observers on the roster; his Department’s obligations to persons with disabilities in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43063/20]

Photo of Colm BrophyColm Brophy (Dublin South West, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 292 and 293 together.

The Department of Foreign Affairs enables participation by Irish citizens in overseas election observation missions organised by the EU and the OSCE through nomination of volunteers from our Election Observation Roster. The current roster (2019-2023) was mustered through an open, competitive application process in 2018. Although Ireland nominates volunteers from this roster, the final decision on selection of election observers rests with the relevant third party organisation, either the EU or OSCE.

Members of the roster are required to keep their personal profiles on the EU and OSCE election observer databases up-to-date. In keeping with data protection protocols, the Department is not permitted to access these profiles except for limited, specified purposes, such as when nominating a roster member. The information is used to verify the suitability for a given mission of a volunteer who has expressed interest in being nominated.

The Department of Foreign Affairs holds no record of the number of persons with disabilities on the Election Observation Roster or of any individual disability. With regard to provisions for people with a disability, the Department of Foreign Affairs is committed to giving applicants' requests for reasonable accommodation at the roster application stage all due consideration, and to making accommodations as appropriate to ensure that people with a disability enjoy equal opportunity. The Department has consulted the National Disability Authority in this regard.

I refer the Deputy to the Information Note on the Overseas Election Observation Roster prepared for the Joint Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade (JCFATD), in which matters relating to the establishment and operation of the Election Observation Roster, including in respect of disabilities, have been comprehensively addressed and which is attached to this response, and, further, the Composite Note published on the election observation pages of the Irish Aid website, also attached to this response.

The issue of reasonable accommodation for disabilities as it pertains to the application process for and operation of the Election Observer Roster has also been addressed in the responses to Parliamentary Questions No. 60 of 23 January 2019, No. 153 of 5 February 2019, No. 65 of 6 February 2019, No. 58 of 7 February 2019, No. 124 of 12 February 2019, No. 129 of 19 February 2019, Nos. 100 and 105 of 26 February 2019, Nos. 117 and 119 of 5 March 2019, Nos. 74, 76 and 81 of 6 March 2019, No. 68 of 12 March 2019, No. 157 of 26 March 2019, Nos. 117 and 119 of 16 April 2019, No. 73 of 29 May 2019, No. 119 of 25 June 2019, No. 109 of 10 July 2019, No. 186 of 13 October 2020, No. 113 of 11 November 2020, and No. 256 of 26 November 2020.

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