HC Deb 04 June 1992 vol 208 cc612-3W
Mr. John D. Taylor

To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if the Anglo-Irish secretariat at Maryfield is operational during the present inter-party talks at Stormont; what is its function; and if he will make a statement.

Sir Patrick Mayhew

The British and Irish Governments announced at an Intergovernmental Conference on 27 April that no further meetings of the conference would be held before the week beginning 27 July. As envisaged in the statement of 26 March 1991, the secretariat at Maryfield is accordingly not required for that period to discharge its normal role of servicing conference meetings provided for in article 3 of the Anglo-Irish Agreement, and is not doing so.