To ask the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland if he will make a statement on the status of the Maryfield secretariat of the Anglo-Irish intergovernmental conference during the present periods of inter-party talks in Northern Ireland.

In my statement of 26 March 1991 I made it clear on behalf of the two Governments that, during the period when the Anglo-Irish conference would not be meeting, the secretariat at Maryfield would not be required to discharge its normal role of servicing such meetings, as provided for in article 3 of the agreement. Since the new talks are to be conducted on the basis of the terms of my 26 March 1991 statement, the same arrangement will apply again.