The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, is expected to seek time in the next Dail session for a debate on Ireland's possible participation in Partnership for Peace.
Opponents of Ireland's involvement in Partnership for Peace yesterday expressed alarm that the Government is moving inexorably towards membership.
Earlier this week the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, said for the first time that there was no fundamental reason of principle why Ireland should not be prepared to participate in Partnership for Peace arrangements with NATO "on our own terms".
His remarks drew an angry response from pro-neutrality groups who accused him of a U-turn on the position he outlined in March 1996. Then, he told the Dail any attempt to join the Partnership for Peace would be a "serious breach of faith and fundamentally undemocratic" and would be seen by other countries as a gratuitous signal that Ireland was moving away from its neutrality and towards gradual incorporation into NATO.
The Taoiseach's comments to a UCD cumann on Wednesday followed less than two months on an article written by Mr Andrews in this newspaper in which he advocated a debate on the issue.
Government sources yesterday confirmed that Mr Andrews will be pressing ahead with plans to table a motion to have a Dail debate on the matter in the next term.
According to the sources, the Government does not take the view that a referendum is required to pave the way for joining Partnership for Peace, as it would not affect the traditional position on neutrality, the sources said.
But the Green Party TD, Mr John Gormley, insisted that a referendum was required.
Mr Roger Cole, chairman of the Peace and Neutrality Alliance, quoted an article written by NATO's assistant secretary-general, Mr Gebhardt von Molke, in which he said "the new Partnership for Peace is now welded to the new NATO".