Growing calls for Ireland to set up an EU presidency security task force

Security Correspondent Cormac O'Keeffe's special report — Delays, failures, and 'half-funded' plans put Ireland's security in jeopardy — is published in the Irish Examiner in print and online at IrishExaminer.com today, Monday. Picture: iStock 

There are mounting calls on the Government to set up an operational task force — comprising gardaí, Defence Forces, and other agencies — to co-ordinate security preparations and operations for Ireland’s presidency of the EU, which begins in July.

Concerns emerged after conflicts between gardaí and the Defence Forces arose last December over the handling of hostile drone activity on the edge of territorial waters and airspace just after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s plane landed at Dublin Airport.