The Department of Foreign Affairs administers an Election Observation Roster as part of Ireland’s commitment to supporting democratisation, human rights and the rule of law. The Roster facilitates the participation of suitably skilled and vetted volunteers who are available to participate at short notice in Election Observation Missions under the aegis of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe and the European Union.
Ireland's current International Election Observation Roster has 196 active members. It was established in January 2019 and is due to expire in December 2023. To date, €38,348 of the annual 2022 budget for the Roster, of €180,000, has been spent. The budget for 2023 will be allocated before the end of 2022 as part of the overall budgetary allocation process.
Details of the costs of each mission, including airfares, expenses and insurance are regularly published on the election observation section of the Irish Aid website at www.irishaid.ie/get-involved/election-observation/. In keeping with the Department’s obligations under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), which include conducting a balancing exercise between the rights and freedoms of the data subjects involved and the public interest, the information on the website does not specify the names of roster members deployed on each mission.
