asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether he is aware of an Amnesty International Report alleging torture of political detainees in Singapore and whether the Government intend to make any representations or take any action in the matter.

The Government are aware of the report published earlier this year by Amnesty International which alleged that torture has been used against political prisoners in Singapore. The Government have also noted that the Government of Singapore are reported to have rejected, in a statement on 31 March, the allegations of physical ill-treatment contained in that report.

In the joint statement issued on 6 March by the Foreign Ministers of the EC countries, including Ireland, and of the Association of South-East Asian Nations, which comprises Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines, the Foreign Ministers reaffirmed their commitment to world peace, international co-operation and understanding, economic development, social justice and human rights.

As the Deputy will be aware, the Government have consistently condemned the violation of human rights wherever they may occur. I can assure the Deputy that Ireland will continue to actively promote the protection of human rights, particularly in regard to torture of persons in custody, by all available means and particularly in international fora such as the United Nations General Assembly.

There is another one of them.

Again, it being a Crown colony, surely there should be some response here to representations? Could I ask the Minister is it the situation that at international level we are totally ineffective in raising our voice against these types of violation or alleged violation?

The situation is not at all good at international level throughout the world—that is a fact of life—and there is very little that we can do about it and that is again a fact of life. Let us start learning something about the facts of life as they exist in a very bad world.

Through the Chair, accepting that it is a big, bad world——

It was never worse, if I may say so.

The Deputy should ask a supplementary question.

——could the Minister see a role that might be played by a small nation such as ours, where we could take some initiative and try to gain the support of many more of the small nations of the world similarly minded, to get something positive done about it?

There is no small country which has been as active as ours in world organisations such as the United Nations and within the Community, but particularly the United Nations. No small country has been anything like as active as we have been in promoting human rights, in seeking to back the United Nations wherever they have stepped in to prevent minor wars breaking out, or more important, to prevent greater wars breaking out. We have played our part very fully and, indeed, some of our people, including our honourable soldiers, have suffered by reason of it. There is no way in which we can be indicated in that respect.

I am not trying to indict the Minister.

We have played more than a full role in that whole area.