asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the formal contact the Government have with the United Nations Committee against Apartheid.

32.

asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the part Ireland plays in the ongoing work of the United Nations Committee concerned with apartheid in the Republic of South Africa.

With the permission of the Ceann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 31 and 32 together.

Ireland is not a member of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid. We do, nevertheless, through our permanent representation to the United Nations in New York, maintain contact with the Special Committee and with its secretariat. I receive records of the Special Committee's meetings as well as copies of its reports and studies on various aspects of apartheid. My recent statements on the apartheid system and on the proposed IRFU rugby tour in South Africa have been lodged with the committee and are being circulated as committee documents. I believe that the committee have done valuable work in highlighting the evil of apartheid and I recently had the pleasure of meeting in Dublin a representative of the committee, Ambassador Gbeho of Ghana, to discuss the Government's policy towards apartheid and their concern about recent developments in South Africa.

33.