THE GARDA UNIT tasked with monitoring terrorist threats and espionage activities in Ireland is to have a major injection of new members. 

Gardaí have run an internal competition for gardaí to join the Special Detective Unit (SDU) in recent months. 

As many as 50 gardaí have now been successful and will change from their current duties to permanently work in the unit starting in their new posts in the coming weeks. 

The SDU has multiple offices in stations across the country with its main national headquarters in Harcourt Square in Dublin. 

The garda website defines the unit as being tasked with State security: “The SDU is responsible for the investigation of threats to State security and the monitoring of persons who pose a threat to this on both national and international fronts.

“The unit also provides security for visiting VIPs, cash-in-transit movements and armed response. The SDU is the operational wing of the Witness Security Programme,” the website states. 

Sources said there has been a decrease in numbers in the unit in recent years due to retirements and promotions.

The major recruitment to the unit will fill this gap along with a broader plan to strengthen Ireland’s intelligence and State security function of An Garda Síochána.

Sources have said that this is a major strategy by garda management to solve the issue of capacity which has dogged some specialist units since the economic crash ten years ago. 

One key area of work by SDU is monitoring foreign agents and embassy staff based in Ireland. 

It also liaises with foreign intelligence services – during the Troubles the unit was also heavily involved in anti-terror work targeting the IRA. It continues to do this work and a section within the SDU deals specifically with the Republican threat.

The unit is involved in monitoring other groups, including Islamic terror suspects. The unit also has a tactical element, with connections to the Emergency Response Unit.  

A statement has been requested from An Garda Síochána.