Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 23 June 2015
504. Deputy Finian McGrath asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade the number of applicants for Ireland’s election roster who submitted a curriculum vitae and obtained marks as a result; his plans to invite fresh applicants to join the roster; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24668/15]
Amharc ar fhreagraInternational election monitoring missions play an important role in the promotion of democracy and human rights. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade maintains and administers a roster of 200 observers for such missions. The aim is to ensure that, when requested, Ireland is represented at an appropriate level in international election observation missions, organised in the main by the OSCE and the EU. The Department carried out a comprehensive review of the election observation roster in 2013. A public call for applications to the roster was issued through the Irish Aid website. All applicants were required to submit a detailed application form, setting out relevant qualifications, knowledge and experience in a number of areas. These areas included: experience of election processes and election observation; knowledge of human rights and/or governance issues; experience of living in challenging environments and language and computer skills. An independent appraisal of all 263 eligible applications was undertaken by two assessors external to the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. I understand that two applicants, on their own initiative, submitted Curricula Vitae along with their application forms. In one of these cases, the Curriculum Vitae was submitted to the external assessors but as this application was, in any event, unsuccessful, the submission of the Curriculum Vitae had no impact on the decision in relation to that candidate or on the selection of the 200 roster members.
Following this appraisal, the 200 individuals who achieved the highest scores in these areas listed above were appointed to the new election observation roster. The roster came into effect on 15 May 2013 for a five year term and there are no plans at this stage to invite new applicants to join the current roster.
