New counter-terrorism legislation will be on the Irish statute books “in a period of weeks”, Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan said yesterday as EU foreign ministers pledged to intensify their efforts to combat terrorism.
Speaking in Brussels, Mr Flanagan said Ireland must “remain on alert” for any terrorist threat in the wake of recent events in Europe, though he stressed the threat within Ireland remained low.
He said he was “satisfied” at the level of monitoring of suspected jihadists in Ireland. “Every effort is being made to ensure that we are fully aware of any threat. Obviously, it is difficult to give a guarantee. However, we can be satisfied that any threat to Ireland is low.”
The Criminal Justice (Terrorist Offences) (Amendment) Bill 2014 is expected to go through the Dáil next month. It introduces three new offences: public provocation to commit a terrorist offence, recruitment for terrorism, and training for terrorism. People found guilty could face jail sentences of up to 10 years.
While specific figures for “foreign fighters” who have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight for jihadist militants are difficult to ascertain, Ireland has been named by a number of international sources, including the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation, as an EU country with a proportionally high number of “foreign fighters”.
Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald told an Oireachtas committee last June that about 30 people had travelled to conflict zones in Syria and Iraq from Ireland.
The EU is grappling with the so-called “foreign fighter” phenomenon – up to 5,000 citizens are believed to have travelled to the Middle East to fight for Islamic State (IS) and other jihadist groups.
The two suspects who were killed by Belgian police last week as part of a counter-terrorism offensive had returned from Syria earlier this month, while the Frenchman accused of killing four people in the Jewish Museum in Brussels last May had trained in Syria before returning to Europe.
Armed soldiers patrolled the streets outside the European Council building in Brussels where foreign ministers met yesterday. Belgian police detained two men aged 35 and 19 at Brussels airport who were believed to have been on their way to Syria via Greece.
Among the measures discussed by ministers was an EU directive on the sharing of air passenger data which has been stalled by the European Parliament amid concern about data privacy rights. Mr Flanagan urged Irish MEPs to take “a lead role” in expediting approval of the directive by the Parliament.
Ministers also pledged to increase engagement with Arab states such as Egypt, Algeria, Turkey and Yemen in the fight against terrorism.
“I want immediately to improve our communication with the Arab-speaking populations both within the EU and in the world, ” the EU’s foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini said yesterday, as she pledged to encourage the use of the Arabic language by the EU in communicating with the Arab world.
