John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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206. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the details of Irelands contribution to the OSCE; the details of some of its functions; the details of Ireland's role within it as a member and its growing importance in the present turbulent global context. [65025/25]

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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207. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade if he will report on Ireland's financial contribution to the OSCE; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [65026/25]

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 206 and 207 together.

Ireland has been a very active OSCE participating State since the Helsinki Summit in 1975. The vision of the Organisation aligns with what has been a long-standing focus of Irish foreign policy: the promotion of peace and security through multilateral cooperation and respect for human rights and the rule of law.

The OSCE embraces a comprehensive concept of security spanning three ‘dimensions’; Politico-military; Economic and Environmental; and Human.

Ireland has played a consistently active role in OSCE’s Human Dimension fora (Human Dimension Committee, Warsaw Human Dimension Conference) over the years.

As chair of the Human Dimension Committee in 2023 and 2024, Ireland ensured that the human rights situation in Ukraine arising from Russia’s war of aggression remained a key focus of the Committee’s work, while also addressing other important and topical human dimension issues across the region.

From September to December of 2027, Ireland will chair the Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC). The FSC is an autonomous decision-making body of the OSCE, dealing with political and military dimensions of security. The Chairperson manages and chairs formal FSC meetings, which take place at least once per week with the participation of all 57 participating States.

The OSCE remains an important multilateral forum for dialogue on issues of security and human rights. Ireland will continue to play an active role across the various dimensions of the organisation’s work, including holding Russia to account for its illegal war of aggression in Ukraine.

Since 2022, Ireland has significantly stepped up extra-budgetary funding to ensure the functioning of the OSCE. The passage of a unified budget remains high on Ireland’s list of priorities. Ireland has allocated €1.75 million in funding to support the OSCE in 2025. This comprises our mandatory contribution and a supplementary funding package to cover costs in the absence of agreement on a unified budget.

John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail)
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208. To ask the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade his views on increasing funding to the OSCE for election observation on the basis that investment in such processes protects and strengthens democratic processes and institutions (details supplied) [65027/25]

Neale Richmond (Dublin Rathdown, Fine Gael)
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The Government is committed to supporting democratisation, human rights, and the rule of law, as a key element of our foreign policy. Support to election observation is central to this commitment and Ireland has contributed observers to international election observation missions since the 1990s.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains and administers a roster enabling Ireland to respond to calls to participate in election observation missions coordinated by the OSCE and the EU. The current five-year Roster commenced on 1 January 2024 and has 170 members.

Since the start of 2024, 111 members of the Roster, including 77 this year, have participated in 26 election observation missions across five continents. Roster members have represented Ireland on OSCE missions to Albania, Azerbaijan (twice), Bosnia & Herzegovina, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova (twice), Mongolia, North Macedonia (twice), Romania, Serbia, the United States, and Uzbekistan. Members have also participated on EU Missions to Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Honduras, Jordan, Kosovo, Malawi, Mozambique, Philippines, Senegal, and Sri Lanka.

The budget for Ireland’s Roster has increased by 50%, from €200,000 in 2024, to €300,000 in 2025. This budget is limited to supporting nominations to missions in countries eligible to receive Official Development Assistance (ODA), as classified by the OECD. Where missions arise in countries which are not eligible for ODA, financial support may be provided from other budget lines to allow for participation, as was the case for the US Elections in 2024 and Romanian Elections in 2025.

We have a very constructive relationship with the OSCE, and Ireland is consistently very well represented on OSCE election monitoring missions.