Smith calls for intelligence links at EU defence meeting on security plans

DEFENCE ministers discussed how to improve the level of security in the EU following the Madrid bombings at their meeting in Brussels yesterday.

Minister Michael Smith, who chaired the meeting, said afterwards there was a need to improve security through a better exchange of intelligence gathered by the military as well as civilian forces.

This was already happening in Ireland where there was concern about somebody being involved in terrorist activity. There was a special intelligence unit in Ireland to ensure good cooperation between the army and gardaí in this area, he said.