Troops left out of war games over insurance

The planned deployment of around 140 crack troops on a major EU exercise has been called off as the Government failed to sign a special agreement to indemnify soldiers on duty abroad.

A security expert said the failure was “totally unacceptable”, as it undermines Ireland’s security co-operation with other countries.

Tom Clonan, a former army officer, said that, in light of terrorist attacks in Mali and Belgium, Ireland needs to co-operate more on intelligence-gathering.