asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs the practical measures which have been agreed at the recent meeting of the Anglo-Irish Conference to achieve the objective laid out in paragraph 8 (b) of the Joint Communiqué after the summit of 15 November, 1985.
Ceisteanna — Questions. Oral Answers. - Anglo Irish Conference.
47.
The Anglo-Irish Conference meeting of 25 March agreed on the urgent need to give new impetus to its work on a programme of special measures to improve relations between the security forces and the community in Northern Ireland and to build confidence in the administration of justice. The conference directed officials of the two Governments to draw up a new programme of work on these issues.
The ongoing work of this group of officials has been reviewed by subsequent conferences, and at the last conference meeting on 2 November. At that meeting, the British side described a number of recent measures adopted in this area while we submitted our views on the need for further work in this area.
Since then the group of officials have continued their work and the matter will be reviewed again at a meeting of the conference which will take place tomorrow.
The Minister says that a number of measures were put in train to commence last March, that they were reviewed in November and will be reviewed again tomorrow. Is it not possible to introduce these piecemeal rather than waiting for a total package to be run? The efforts to build confidence in the security forces among both communities, particularly the Nationalist community, are of primary importance in bringing about equilibrium in the North of Ireland.
There are two aspects along those lines which will be attended to tomorrow. One is the need to eliminate harassment at various checkpoints and the need for the presence of RUC personnel at these checkpoints. At present there are check points which are not fully supervised in the sense that there are not any police personnel present. A similar aspect applies to the whole area of the accompaniment of army and quasi-army patrols by RUC personnel. We should make a particular start on the matter of the checkpoint supervision because, from the correspondence coming into our Department, there is a growing number of complaints in regard to harassment at those points. That is something that can be ascertained; it is something specific that can be dealt with. It is not like a patrol that can happen in the middle of the night. There are ascertainable checkpoints with rotas set out and there should be, in our view, high RUC personnel presence at these.
I agree with that. It is something that is extremely important and which was referred to a number of times in the Agreement and in the communiqué so the Minister is rightly pursuing that. However, that is the negative side. There is also a positive programme of work that should be set out. Relations between the security forces and the Nationalist population in particular, but between both populations, can be built up and fostered so that that degree of trust and confidence can be instilled into the Nationalist community with regard to the security forces. That is just as important as getting a high level of accompaniment.
I agree. The fair employment legislation will be announced very shortly. That would be helpful, although it is not what the Deputy is talking about.
No, it is not.
Over a whole range of contacts between the minority population and the security forces there is need for improvement in what the Deputy calls confidence-building relations between them.
The Minister must not wait until he has a full package. He should bring them in one by one.
That was mentioned earlier today.