Ireland must be involved in collective defence and security arrangements with other EU countries, for the protection of the State, the Fine Gael spokesman on foreign affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell, told last night's session of the Forum on Europe.
The Government had "abysmally failed" to provide for the security of Irish citizens, said Mr Mitchell, who chairs the Oireachtas Committee on European Affairs. If attacked, the State would need the protection of its European neighbours.
"Other so-called non-aligned EU states are equipped to defend themselves, we are not."
Mr Mitchell advocated revisiting the Western European Union (WEU) Treaty, article five of which requires signatory states to provide automatic military assistance to each other if attacked.
Ireland could propose, at the Convention on the Future of Europe, to adopt article five as a "protocol" rather than the full treaty on the basis that any military assistance provided to other states would be at the Government's own discretion, he said.
Mr Mitchell's call comes despite assurances from the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, to the forum last month that no proposals involving mutual defence arrangements with other member-states would be put before the Convention.
Mr Mitchell last night attacked the Government for relying on "fudge" and "keeping the heads down" in its policies and attitude to defence, instead of putting the case for involvement in an EU defence "entity" to the people.
"The idea that everyone is in favour of the status quo has been eulogised beyond all reason," he said.
Ireland must not make the mistake, as with monetary union, of allowing the rules of a common defence arrangement to be written by others, he said, but should seek to be the architect of of its own defence position within Europe.
Ms Fiona O'Malley TD of the Progressive Democrats cautioned against rushing into a common EU defence policy.
She told the forum she had "reservations" about the timing of the Convention, due in part to the European reaction to the war on Iraq.
She said the draft treaty of the Convention is scheduled for June but the "split" between European states in their approaches to the war had demonstrated fundamental differences in the State's foreign policies.
"Can we expect Europe to establish a common foreign and security policy at this stage? Is it desirable?"
The issue would need time to be debated, she said, and she was surprised at the "haste" with which the Convention chairman Mr Giscard d'Estaing was pushing the draft treaty forward.
"It is alarming and, to my mind, in defiance of the people of Europe," she said.
