The Royal Irish Regiment is to be disbanded in the North as part of a major plan to cut troop numbers it emerged tonight.
A report carried by the Press Association claims that British military authorities plan to scrap all three battalions, comprising of nearly 3,000 soldiers under a new deal to break the deadlock in the peace process.
British army chiefs have already drawn up a redundancy packages and held talks with trade union representatives to discuss the future of civilian staff affected bythe move.
An internal draft document circulated among senior staff by the GOC in Northern Ireland, Lieutenant General Truesdale, has set out the impact of the demilitarisation programme code-named operation Banner.
The document said: "What is already clear is that the end of Operation Banner will have an effect right across the whole army on such issues as force levels.
"The end of Operation Banner will inevitably mean the disbandment of the HomeService element of the Royal Irish Regiment."
The Irish and British governments have already publishedtheir joint declaration setting out plans to slash troop levels in Northern Ireland from about 14,000 to garrison strength of 5,000.
The undertaking which will involve bringing down military watchtowers inBelfast, Derry and South Armagh depends on the IRA declaring that thewar is over.
But the draft memo from Lt Gen Truesdale says that the British Prime Minister hasalready given directions that normalisation measures should proceed.
Army bosses have been involved in negotiations for several months with theBritish Ministry of Defence and the Northern Ireland Office to draw up the military partof the Government's demilitarisation plan, it said.
The most crucial aspect of this involves putting the Royal Irish's threebattalions, currently based in Holywood, County Down, Armagh City and Omagh,County Tyrone out of service.
The plans do not affect the regiment's first battalion based in Kent whichuntil recently was under the command of Lieutenant Colonel Tim Collins, who isnow the subject of two separate MOD investigations.
PA