Ireland must remain ‘on alert’ to terrorist threat, says Flanagan

Ireland must "remain on alert" to terrorist threats in the wake of recent terrorist activity in Europe, Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has warned.

Speaking on his way into Monday’s meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels, Mr Flanagan stressed the threat to Ireland remains low and 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 guarantee.

However, we can be satisfied that any threat to Ireland is low.”

Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald told an Oireachtas committee in June gardaí were aware of about 30 suspected jihadists who had travelled to a number of conflict zones from Ireland.

In a statement in September, gardaí said the force was "alert to the potential threat arising from the significant events unfolding in Syria and Iraq".

While specific figures for "foreign fighters" who have travelled to Iraq and Syria to fight for jihadist militants are difficult to gather, Ireland has been named by a number of sources as a country with a proportionally high number of residents who have departed to take part in conflicts.

A report compiled by CNN last year put only Finland ahead of Ireland as the origin for most foreign fighters per head of population.

The European Commission estimates that around 5,000 people have left Europe to fight in wars in Syria and Iraq.

EU foreign ministers are gathering in the Belgian capital amidst heightened security following last week's terrorist events in Belgium.

Armed soldiers were patrolling the European Council building in Brussels on Monday morning as ministers arrived.

Belgian police searched a number of residences in Brussels yesterday as the country’s security level remained at level 3, the second-highest level.

Speaking on Monday Mr Flanagan said the EU needed to improve co-ordination between member states on fighting terrorism.

"I believe it is important that we have a co-ordinated line over a range of issues that will ensure we have the best possible guard against terrorism within the European Union. "

While ministers are due to discuss the exchange of information between countries, Mr Flanagan said a “pre-radicalisation” approach to terrorism also had to be prioritised.

He said it was important there “isn’t isolation in communities throughout Europe, that we reach out to minority groups, that we have a policy of integration and ensure that people can be dissuaded from engaging in the type of activity we have seen in recent times.”

Monday’s meeting which will be attended by EU counter-terrorism co-ordinator Gilles de Kerckhove, is expected to focus on ways of strengthening EU rules around border checks within the EU’s Schengen passport-free zone as well as the European Commission’s proposal on the sharing of Passenger name records (PMR) which has become stalled in the EU legislative process.

The EU's relationship with Russia is also on the agenda for the meeting.

Europe remains on heightened alert following last week’s events in Belgium which led to dozens of suspected terrorists being arrested across northern Europe on Friday.

Belgium is also seeking the extradition of an individual being held by Greek police, following the arrest of four suspected terrorists in Athens on Saturday.

It is not clear if the individual is the suspected leader of the terrorist cell uncovered by Belgian police last week.

Police continued to raid residences in Brussels over the weekend following last week’s counter-terrorism crackdown which led to the arrest of 13 people in Belgium.

Meanwhile, one of the two gunmen who murdered 12 people in the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo on January 9th, was buried in secret in the Paris suburb of Gennevilliers on Sunday.

His brother Said was buried in the eastern city of Reims on Friday evening. Both were buried in unmarked graves under tight security.

Soldiers were deployed to guard a number of specific sites across Belgium this weekend as the country increased security in the wake of last week’s terrorist crackdown.

Approximately 150 troops were deployed on Saturday with a further 150 soldiers expected to be mobilised later this week. The government said that a decision had been taken to provide enhanced protection to "strategic sites" in Antwerp and Belgium. Jewish schools and buildings, a number of mosques and the embassies of the US, UK and France, were given added protection by the army this weekend, with around 30 troops patrolling the Jewish quarter of Antwerp.