Call to retain second battalion of Royal Irish Regiment

A second battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment should be retained in the North, the Democratic Unionist Party claimed today.

Jeffrey Donaldson, DUP MP for Lagan Valley, called on the British government to alter plans to scale the regiment down in the wake of the IRA’s declaration that it was committed to democracy.

Mr Donaldson, who met Defence Secretary John Reid during the week, said the DUP was totally opposed to the way the issue had been dealt with.

“I have met hundreds of soldiers from the Royal Irish home service in recent weeks and they are appalled at the way in which the announcement of the disbandment was handled coming immediately after the IRA statement,” he said.

The British Ministry of Defence plans to disband the three home battalions of the RIR on August 1 2007. It is planned one battalion will be retained based in Oxfordshire, England.

But Mr Donaldson said his party wanted a force to be kept at home and he said he was pushing for a decent, honourable deal for those who wanted to leave the regiment.

“It is our view that the (British) government should retain a second battalion of the Royal Irish Regiment based as part of the garrison of 5,000 soldiers in Northern Ireland,” he said.

“There needs to be a locally recruited regiment based in Northern Ireland as part of that garrison even in a peaceful situation. So we want a fair deal for those soldiers who miss to leave and fair deal for those soldiers who wish to remain.”

Mr Donaldson also reiterated the party’s claims that verifiable proof was needed to show that the IRA had put its weapons beyond use.

With speculation mounting that the terror group will decommission in September, he said reports from independent witnesses had to be backed up by photographs.

“If the IRA are serious about maximising public confidence in the decommissioning process then we believe they need to produce visible evidence that decommissioning has occurred,” he said.

“The independent witnesses do have a key role to play but if it’s limited, circumscribe, if they are prevented from giving full details about what they have seen and if they are not able to produce physical evidence of the process of decommissioning then I think it would diminish the impact that the process has in rebuilding confidence.”

Mr Donaldson is to travel to Colombia in the wake of the scandal surrounding the return of the "Colombia Three", who were convicted of training rebel FARC guerillas.

He said the trip would show the people of Ireland the effect terrorism on everyday people in the South American country.