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Royal Irish Regiment (Home Service)

I thank the hon. Gentleman for the service he gave as a member of the UDR. He made strong and trenchant points about the role of the UDR and the Royal Irish (Home Service); there is no one better placed to do that. The hon. Gentleman raised issues about the phasing and tranching of the redundancies. Clearly, we have to have some structure. The bulk of the full-timers will go by the earlier date that I indicated in my statement. This has to be managed in a progressive way. We will try to be sensitive to the wishes of individuals at all times, but we have to meet the commitments to try to reduce the numbers as we go forward. In addition, there are operational needs because the 2006 marching season is still to be faced. The part-timers have made representations to me on this, and the hon. Member for North Down (Lady Hermon) has highlighted the sensitivity of this issue. The difficulty is that if everyone wishes to remain in until the very end, that will not be until 2008 and it is not practicable. I do not think that any other date would make it easier. I will take this matter away and reflect on it, as we have done throughout the process, but I am setting out the difficulties. One of the ways in which we are seeking to address the desire of people to be there when, effectively, the flag comes down, is to have a ceremony, which we are planning for later this year so that the bulk of those affected will still be in service. The final arrangements have not been made and a number of processes remain to be gone through, but we are planning something later in the year. I mentioned this in my statement and will make an announcement in due course. We are trying to be as sensitive as possible and I will take on board the point that has been made.