New legislation must be introduced to strengthen the state’s ability to respond to a terrorist threat, it was urged today.

CASH must be injected in to the State’s “completely out of date” air defences, say opposition politicians as a report to be published today confirms spending on defence equipment dropped sharply last year.

THE Chief Fire Officers' Association has written to the Department of Environment warning that the country's fire service is incapable of dealing with a major terrorist attack.

Taoiseach Bertie Ahern recently declared that this country was unlikely to be a target of a major terrorist strike, a sentiment which possibly did not give comfort to everybody.