Fine Gael has called for the end of the "triple-lock" system that "imposes a political straitjacket" on Ireland's long tradition of peacekeeping, writes Marie O'Halloran.
Mr Gay Mitchell, Fine Gael's foreign affairs spokesman, said that Irish forces could currently only be deployed under a full UN mandate and this prevented them taking part in some key peacekeeping missions including in Macedonia.
Introducing the party's International Peace Missions Deployment Bill, Mr Mitchell said the legislation was specifically drafted to "recognise the primacy and importance of the United Nations".
However, the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, rejected the legislation as "ill-timed, ill-considered, out of step with what is happening at international level and services to erode, rather than bolster, the primacy of the UN in relation to the maintenance of international peace and security".
He believed it also "puts at risk the legitimacy and protection which a UN mandates conveys on overseas peace support operations and the people who serve in them".
The Labour Party also rejected the legislation. Its foreign affairs spokesman, Mr Michael D. Higgins, said "we have to begin to make the case, not just against war but for forms of genuine multilateralism that will bring us the prospect of peace".
He asked: "Why should we structure our policy on either fear or on inevitability response or a military definition of security?" He said that "if you write off the connection between the General Assembly and between the decisions of the Security Council however imperfect and the charter and the principles, it seems you are moving yourself to the side of those who have in fact deeply harmed the UN. However difficult and uncomfortable it is, however bleak the prospects might be in the short-term, we have to be on the other side of the line.
Outlining the basis of the Bill, Mr Mitchell said the "triple lock" required that any deployment of Irish troops was backed by a full UN mandate establishing an international UN force; it had to be agreed by Government and it had to be approved by Dáil Éireann.
The Bill "allows the dispatch of Irish troops on an international peace mission if the Dáil has passed a Resolution, and the Dáil is satisfied that the mission meets the purposes and principles of the UN Charter, even if the force deployed is not a UN force".
He said the triple lock meant Irish forces could not participate in the EU peacekeeping force in Macedonia, even though 13 other EU states were involved. The UN supported the mission but a formal resolution was vetoed by China for "reasons of political self-interest".
Fine Gael's defence spokesman, Mr Dinny McGinley, said through the triple lock "we have given self-serving members of the UN Security council, who may be operating to a narrow national agenda, the right to pre-empt our free decision. Obviously, this situation is neither healthy nor wise."
The debate continues tonight.