The Minister for Justice, Mr O'Donoghue, will "very shortly" introduce a bill to ratify the UN convention against the financing of international terrorism, agreed between EU ministers in the wake of the September 11th attacks in the US.
The remaining seven conventions arising from the international response to the attacks may be dealt with by means of chapters in the forthcoming legislation.
At the Garda Representative Association annual conference in Westport, Co Mayo, Mr O'Donoghue said it was unlikely any of the legislation would affect the Constitution and he did not foresee the need for a referendum.
He attended the conference yesterday after attending Tuesday's meeting of the EU justice and home affairs Committee of Ministers in Luxembourg, at which anti-terrorist strategy was discussed.
Two issues remain to be resolved by the ministers, he said. These concerned the European extradition warrant and the definition of a terrorist act. Seven states, including the Republic, had difficulties over extradition in a case where the alleged offence did not exist in their state. Some countries also had "investigative detention", which allows a person to be detained for a lengthy period while evidence is gathered.
In this State, the maximum a person can be held on suspicion of committing a terrorist offence is three days and, in a suspected drugs case, seven days. Some member-states were also insistent that a person must be tried only on the offence for which he or she has been extradited.
"I am fairly confident we will be able to get over these difficulties and still safeguard the rights of our citizens with protections built into extradition still in place," said Mr O'Donoghue. "We are moving inexorably towards an EU arrest warrant and a common definition of a terrorist act."
The ministers had already agreed the establishment of an anti-terrorist unit in police liaison agency Europol in the Hague, a programme of co-operation with the US authorities and the sharing of intelligence.
The Garda Commissioner, Mr Pat Byrne, yesterday said there was no evidence of any link between al-Qaeda, the terrorist group believed responsible for the September 11th attacks, and any Irish terrorist group. He was responding to questions from journalists about reports in a Spanish newspaper that representatives of the "Real IRA" had contacts with and received funding from al-Qaeda.
The report on Tuesday suggested the "Real IRA" had met members of al-Qaeda in Slovakia earlier this year. According to Garda sources, however, it is understood three Irish men were arrested in Slovakia after they allegedly met a member of British intelligence agency MI5 posing as an Arab terrorist group prepared to offer weapons and funding.
Mr Byrne said orders were being sent out to all Garda divisions yesterday about how to respond to increasing reports of suspicious substances that have been leading to anthrax scares.
He advised members of the public who were suspicious of powders or other substances to contact their local Garda station or ring 999.
"It is important to state that whatever is happening, we have got control of the situation in terms of resources and the deployment of those resources."
Garda∅ have privately expressed the view that there is no threat to the State arising from the events in the US and the war against the Taliban in Afghanistan.