The Government has rejected Opposition claims that it was "sweeping under the carpet" proposals about Ireland's participation in an EU battlegroup.
Sinn Féin, Labour and the Green Party warned that the move was a "further nail in the coffin of Irish neutrality" and that the Government lost the first Nice Treaty because of a failure to listen to concerns "about a slide into military alliance that would not be accountable to this House".
But Tánaiste Michael McDowell said the Government's position regarding neutrality was well understood and it was firmly committed to the triple lock where the UN, the Government and the Dáil all have to approve Irish involvement in international military actions.
He pointed out, to repeated intervention and heckling, that one of the partners of an alter-native government, Fine Gael, opposed the triple lock.
The Opposition rejected the move that "Memoranda of Understanding on the Nordic Battlegroup and Operational headquarters" be referred to an Oireachtas committee without debate in the Dáil, but was defeated by 60 votes to 43. Green Party foreign affairs spokesman John Gormley claimed he was promised the memorandum would be placed in the Oireachtas library but this did not happen. Then he was told it was to be amended but this did not happen because other member states refused to amend it. "It is a very important document because it sets out what we are about to do regarding this battlegroup," Mr Gormley said.
Sinn Féin spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh said the move was "a further nail in the Irish neutrality coffin", as the issue represented a major change in Irish foreign and defence policy.
The proposal's implications needed to be fully teased out, including that the proposed battlegroup's headquarters would be in Britain and that Ireland would be joining a battlegroup with other Nato members.
Labour's enterprise spokes- man Ruairí Quinn said the Government successfully managed to lose the first referendum on the Nice Treaty by not listening to the legitimate concerns of many people about a slide into a military alliance which would not be accountable to the House.
He added that all sides had traditionally supported neutrality as understood in the context of the times in which people find themselves. "If the Government refused to grant time to allow this to be properly debated . . . it will hand a present to those people who do not want to support the European project. No benefit is to be gained from burying this matter through a secrecy of silence and stifled debate."
Mr McDowell said there was no question of the Government sweeping the matter under the carpet and every deputy was entitled to discuss it at length at committee.
He sparked repeated Opposition intervention when he said that while the Government was unambiguously committed to the triple lock, one of the "would-be allies in an alternative government has rubbished and opposed the idea of a triple lock".
The Minister described this as a profound issue that the Labour Party does not share with its proposed allies.
Labour's foreign affairs spokesman Michael D Higgins said it was an accountability issue and the Tánaiste was in no position to lecture anyone on that.
The Minister replied that they would send the issue to committee "and let's see how badly divided Fine Gael and Labour are on the issue".
