New armed support units planned to combat terror threat

A training exercise took place in Dublin this morning

Ten new armed support units are being established in towns and cities outside Dublin to deal with the threat from terrorism and organised crime.

Garda Commissioner Nóirín O'Sullivan said the armed response in Dublin had been increased by a third and 24-hour armed cover will be available all over the country from the end of the year.

The ten new armed support units are being established in Cork, Galway, Limerick, Claremorris, Cahir, Waterford, Mullingar, Newbridge, Ballyshannon and Dundalk.

Commissioner O'Sullivan was speaking at a training exercise in Dublin today where gardaí staged a response to a simulated terrorist attack.

She said today's exercise shows the gardaí have the capacity to respond and they are dealing with the terrorist threat not just from dissident and international organisations, but from organised crime also.

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the first meeting of the new Government Security Committee will take place next week.

He said that the establishment of the committee was to allow more "ministerial involvement in preparing for and managing major security threats, and to allow more extensive cross-Departmental cooperation on these issues".

He said that the security exercise which took place today was part of the "ongoing work by State agencies to practice, develop and assess our capacity to prevent or respond to incidents".

Mr Varadkar also said that there is no change to the threat level in Ireland, which remains at "moderate".