The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, has offered a robust defence of the Government's decision to allow US troops transit Shannon Airport en route to Iraq, and said al-Qaeda terrorism would not cause a change in policy.
Referring to al-Qaeda as "these lunatics", Mr Cowen said European Union justice ministers meeting in emergency session today in Brussels, chaired by the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, would lead the way to Europe facing down any threat from international terrorists.
The EU Commission yesterday urged the ministers to set up a register of "persons, groups and entities" facing criminal proceedings for terrorist offences anywhere in the EU. An action paper by the Commission in the wake of the Madrid outrage suggested that the register could represent "a real contribution to the effectiveness of the fight against crime in general, and terrorism in particular".
The Commission also proposed the setting up of a clearing-house mechanism to exchange information between European police forces, judicial authorities and intelligence services. The exchange of information would focus on identifying terrorists' "sleeping cells", recruitment methods, financial bases and external connections.
But the Commission came down against the idea of a US-style EU Central Intelligence Agency, favouring instead greater co-operation between existing national police and security organisations.
Mr Cowen, speaking to The Irish Times in Canada where he attended an EU-Canada trade summit, said he had no information to suggest that the threat of a terrorist attack in Ireland by al-Qaeda was any greater than it had been before the Madrid train bombings in which the death toll rose yesterday to 202, the same as the Bali outrage in 2002.
Five suspects appeared in a Spanish court yesterday amid tight security. As the five were in court, the authorities announced the arrest of a further five people.
Mr Cowen was asked if the Government feared that the Republic might be a target because of its policy of allowing US troops to use Shannon. He replied: "Democratic governments have jobs to do. We have our positions to support and our interests to protect and we will continue to do that. How this maniacal, nihilistic organisation like al-Qaeda interprets it won't stop us from doing what we have to do in the interests of our own country's policies and perspectives.
"We will face down that threat as we will face down any other threat. We are not going to live our lives or devise our policies on speculation on how al-Qaeda will seek to determine events. They have no respect for anybody.
"Eleven nationalities were killed in Madrid, 83 in New York. The idea that they \ are pretty targeted in the nations they attack is pathetic nonsense. It is time we just called it for what it is and not have our decisions made as a sovereign government by these lunatics."
Asked if the Government agreed with the new Spanish government that the war in Iraq was separate from the war on terrorism, Mr Cowen replied: "Terrorist attacks both predated and postdated military action in Iraq. What's relevant is that we as European Union democratic governments are determined to face down this or any other threat to our political system and the rule of law."
Referring to the Government's proposals to boost security co-operation at a meeting of EU justice ministers in Madrid today, Mr Cowen said: "It's not a question of reinventing the wheel . . . Every country has work to do to update its arrangements based on what has happened, such as the financing of terrorism, freezing of assets, security co-ordination, threat assessments, transport, border controls and co-ordination of information on where people are going."