Defence Minister Willie O’Dea today begins an official three-day visit to Irish troops serving in Chad.

Almost 400 troops bound for troubled African state Chad went on parade in Dublin today ahead of joining the tough peace enforcement mission.

A REPORT by the state spending watchdog is expected to show the final bill for the cost of the three tribunals of inquiry will be far less than the €1 billion-plus previously predicted.

IRISH troops in Chad will swap their EU hats for blue UN berets when the UN takes over from the EU’s peacekeeping mission there next March, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea has said.

IRISH troops are leading a mission in Chad to protect refugee farmers returning to their land and reassure villages of their safety under the protection of EU troops.

A son of Garda Jerry McCabe, who was shot dead by the IRA, today graduated as one of 300 new recruits into the force.

THE Government will seek to cap the interest on third-party legal costs arising from the tribunals of inquiry when the Dáil returns in September.

NEIGHBOURING north Kerry and west Limerick parishes were last night trying to come to terms with tragedies that claimed the lives of a young solider and a schoolboy.

Irish peacekeeping troops will remain in Kosovo and Afghanistan for another year, it emerged tonight.

IRISH troops came under fire from rebel groups in Chad where they are protecting refugee camps close to the Darfur border.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea is due to visit Irish troops serving in Chad tomorrow despite weekend clashes in the troubled country.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea is to pay his first official visit to Irish troops serving in Chad next week.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea today begins a two-day trip to Kosovo and Austria.

HEAVILY ARMED members of the Emergency Response Unit took up duty in Limerick’s feud hotspots yesterday.

Senior gardaí are travelling to boost morale among colleagues serving in an EU police force in Bosnia-Herzegovina this week, it was revealed today.

Tensions have increased in Bosnia-Herzegovina since Kosovo declared independence but Irish troops are safe, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said tonight.

IRELAND’S peacekeeping mission to the central African country of Chad has been postponed until next year due to what the Government said was a lack of adequate air support for troops.

THE 24-year deployment of Irish troops in Lebanon comes to a close today as defence force members serving with the remaining UN peacekeeping soldiers in the war-torn country stand down.

LABOUR leader Eamon Gilmore has called on Defence Minister Willie O’Dea and Government TDs from the west to take a stand with the people they represent in a Dáil vote on the Shannon-Aer Lingus controversy.

IRELAND’S war dead were honoured at a ceremony in the Royal Hospital Kilmainham, Dublin, yesterday.

AN Taoiseach Bertie Ahern yesterday made a dramatic intervention in the crisis in the mid-west region caused by Aer Lingus’s ending of its Shannon to Heathrow service.

Soldiers seeking overseas service and careers courses are facing new interview and selection procedures, it was announced today.

Several thousand people lined Dublin’s O’Connell Street today as Taoiseach Bertie Ahern and President Mary McAleese led commemorations to mark the 91st anniversary of the Easter Rising.

THE first-ever national memorial to Irish soldiers who died on duty will be sited in Dublin’s Merrion Square, it emerged today.

SOLDIERS leaving for the Lebanon later this month will face a low threat-level despite the volatile situation, the army said yesterday.

THE country’s taxpayers paid €15.1 million over four years for banks to carry out money transfers under the protection of the defence forces.

The Labour Party’s description of prospective Irish UN troops in Lebanon as bodyguards is highly offensive and demeaning, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said tonight.

IRELAND’S role in the new EU Battlegroups could be put in doubt if a row over mandatory participation is not sorted out, it emerged yesterday.

THE Government has formally sanctioned a 150-strong Irish force to Lebanon, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea announced yesterday.

A fire attack on a car that left two Limerick children fighting for their lives was an incomprehensible act of savagery, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said tonight.

THE Defence Forces are carrying out a fresh investigation into Ireland’s single largest loss of life on a UN mission.

FOREIGN Affairs Minister Dermot Ahern yesterday said violence would not resolve the crisis in the Middle East, but again made clear the Government’s reluctance to commit troops to a UN peacekeeping force in Lebanon.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea will today visit a famous battle site that sparked a decade of war and ethnic violence in the Balkans.

Irish troops in Kosovo fulfil a vital humanitarian role as well as peacekeeping duties, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said tonight.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea today begins a two-day visit to Irish peacekeeping troops in Kosovo.

FIANNA FÁIL’S election strategies are causing growing tension among senior ministers.

THE United Nations is still the best hope for world peace, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea said yesterday, at a ceremony marking the 50th anniversary of Ireland’s UN membership.

Defence Minister Willie O’Dea today cancelled plans for a meeting with United States Joint Chief of Staff General Richard Myers.

THE Government will deport the estimated 40 al-Qaida supporters living in the Republic if they pose a security threat in the wake of the London bombings, Defence Minister Willie O’Dea insisted yesterday.

THE army will be sent in to take over the running of the country’s prisons if current efforts at preventing a strike by prison officers fail, the Minister for Defence and Defence Forces Chief of Staff confirmed.

FOR once, Munster rugby star Jim Williams led the way out onto a crowded Limerick arena without feeling any pressure.

An expert Irish defence forces team is to be deployed to the region devastated by the Asian tsunami next week, it was confirmed today.

BANKS contributed less than half of the €40 million cost of nearly 10,000 cash deliveries escorted by gardaí and the Defence Forces over a four year period, figures showed yesterday.