Is the Minister embarrassed by the fact that having given a clear impression in this House after the December meeting of the Anglo-Irish Inter-Governmental Conference that in future UDR patrols would be accompanies by the RUC, thus obviating the need for direct public contact, the following month an unaccompanied UDR patrol opened fire on civilians near Cookstown in County Tyrone? Is the Minister aware that the Chief Constable of the RUC has made it clear that UDR patrols will not be accompanied at all times by the RUC? What does he propose to do about this?

I said at the time that it would be the objective of the conference to ensure that confidence in the security forces in the North of Ireland would be built up by having security forces — UDR or regular British Army — accompanied by RUC police officers when dealing with the public. Progress is being made in this regard. Obviously there is a logistical problem concerning the number of people available. It has been very evident during the past few months that the RUC have been stretched in other matters. I am satisfied that progress is being made and will continue to be made, especially in the most sensitive areas, to ensure that where the security forces are dealing with members of the public the point of contact will be an RUC person.

Does the Minister accept that UDR patrols are in operation without the RUC and causing quite a lot of harassment to the Nationalist population?

I accept that this is so. It will take some time to achieve and many considerations must be taken into account. Logistics are involved. I accept that there are UDR patrols operating without being accompanied by RUC men when dealing with the public. I am quite willing to accept that they are harassing some of the Nationalist community and I have had some complaints. Where I have received specific complaints with details of locations, times and named people or some possibility of identification, I have brought them to the attention of the British authorities.