I propose to take Question No. 20 and Priority Question No. 42 together.
Ireland has always supported the adoption by the UN of selective mandatory sanctions against South Africa. The Government considers that effective selective sanctions, carefully chosen, properly imposed by the UN Security Council and fully implemented are an effective means of putting pressure on the South African Government peacefully to abandon apartheid and to end its blocking of the plan for Namibian independence enshrined in Security Council Resolution 435. The Government will continue to work for the adoption of such sanctions by the UN.
To be effective, sanctions, whether selective or comprehensive, require wide international support. In our appreciation, this wide international support is at present not available for comprehensive sanctions. The Government, therefore, doubts the feasibility of comprehensive sanctions at present and have no plans to take steps to bring the matter before the UN Security Council, of which Ireland is not a member. Apart from our efforts at the UN, Ireland has already taken selective sanctions represented by our ban on fruit and vegetable imports from South Africa as well as by the actions taken together with our partners in the Twelve.