Vol. 256 No. 9
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs if he will convey to the South African Government a protest on behalf of the Irish people against the sentence of five years imprisonment imposed on the Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, the Very Rev. Gonville ffrench-Beytagh.
28.
asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs whether he has made representations to the Government of South Africa concerning reports of activity in Ireland by the South African intelligence service; if he has ascertained or has made inquiries whether evidence collected in Ireland was produced during the recent trial of Very Rev. Dean Gonville ffrench-Beytagh; and if he will make a statement on the matter.
With your permission, a Cheann Comhairle, I propose to take Questions Nos. 27 and 28 together. Our representative on the Special Political Committee of the United Nations General Assembly has already expressed our serious concern at the harsh sentence on the Anglican leader in Johannesburg. I have no evidence that information was improperly collected here for the purpose of this trial and I could consider making representations to the Government of South Africa only on the basis of established facts.
Would the Minister say whether or not he has ascertained that evidence was collected, whether it be properly or improperly, because the Minister qualified the statement referring to the collection of evidence? I want to know if it was collected and if the Minister knows whether or not it was produced at the trial? If it was collected here, having regard to the fact that this country is on record as being opposed to apartheid will steps be taken to convey to the South African Government a denunciation of the activities of their agents in this State for purposes which are opposed to the declarations of this State?
I agree with the Deputy to this extent; that if we get factual information to sustain the allegations which have been made with regard to the taking of photographs here by a South African Intelligence agent or agents, I would take a very serious view of the matter. At the moment we are investigating the matter but there is an absence of hard information.
I should like to ask the Minister if he has seen a newspaper report in The Observer of 31st October in which specific allegations were made regarding the gathering of intelligence information by South African agents in Ireland. Does this not constitute a sufficient suggestion of impropriety on the part of the South African authorities for the Minister to initiate investigations? Surely the newspaper report is enough to get the investigation going?
The Department of Justice are following up the allegations made in The Observer, to which the Deputy has referred. The Irish Government at all times have made their attitude quite clear in regard to their total opposition to apartheid in every form, but one does not make representations or take Government action without hard information. This is being pursued at the moment.
Is the Minister aware that on occasions when opponents of apartheid have visited this country they have been continuously shadowed and accompanied by special intelligence members of the South African Embassy in London who are equipped with cameras? There arises a need for the Department of Justice, the Garda Síochána and the Special Branch not only not to facilitate them but to ensure that their odious activities, whereby the people such as the man referred to are being persecuted and imprisoned, are not allowed in the Republic.
If such activities are taking place I deplore them. As I have stated, this matter is being investigated at the moment by the Department of Justice.
