Barbed wire soldier incident "shouldn’t have happened" and will be fully investigated — Minister

Defence Minister Simon Coveney has said an incident in which a soldier was tied up and subjected to a number of electric shocks to his feet and chest "should not have happened" and would be thoroughly investigated.

The Irish Examiner revealed earlier this week that the soldier, in his 30s, also had barbed wire strung around his toes in the alleged incident, during which a group of up to 30 of his colleagues are said to have looked on.

Military police are now investigating and Mr Coveney, speaking in Cork yesterday, said: “There is no place in the Irish Defence Forces for the kind of stories that we have read about this week in relation to this particular incident and we will deal with it appropriately.”