In a strong defence of NATO, the chairman of the Oireachtas Foreign Affairs Committee, Mr Des O'Malley (PD), has called for a more informed debate and has claimed the organisation has saved Ireland, along with hundreds of millions of western Europeans, from "enslavement".
His remarks followed a submission to yesterday's meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee from Mr Rick Kirby, deputy head of the partnership and co-operation section of NATO in Brussels.
Mr O'Malley had invited NATO to send a representative to speak to the committee and he described Mr Kirby's presence as "a significant event". Mr Kirby said NATO was not trying to recruit Ireland as a member. The organisation, founded in 1949, would consist of 19 countries when it celebrated its 50th anniversary next April. Though the risk of global conflict in the foreseeable future was "close to nil", and though NATO did not have any enemies, its members did not want to see the organisation disbanded as it represented an insurance against "sources of potential threat".
In spite of strong opposition from committee members to the idea of joining NATO, Mr O'Mal ley said grave misunderstandings existed in relation to NATO and the Partnership for Peace process involving non-NATO nations, partly due to lack of information.
"It disturbs me that we are somewhat isolationist in this area," he said.
Were it not for NATO, he and perhaps hundreds of millions of western Europeans would very probably have been enslaved at some time in the 1950s and 1960s. NATO was the most effective military alliance in the world and it achieved its success "without ever having to fire a shot in anger".
"It had the capability to deter any aggressor foolish enough to attack it but this is something which is not fully realised here," he said. Ireland was the beneficiary of that protection and its safety over the last 40 years should not be taken for granted. It should also be acknowledged that much of this protection stem med from the strength of NATO.
It was "somewhat unreal" at a time when China, Iraq, Iran, India, Pakistan and Israel had a nuclear capacity to urge Europe and North America to "denude itself of something that kept it safe for 50 years". Some of the countries with nuclear capacity were "maverick and potentially dangerous".
Urging a more informed public debate on participating in the Partnership for Peace programme, he said all its members seemed "perfectly happy" with the arrangement and he failed to see that Irish people were so fundamentally different to everyone else in western Europe.
Mr Kirby argued that the Partnership for Peace, of which Ireland is not a member, was not an integral part of NATO. It could be a "waiting room" for countries wishing to join the organisation or it need not, depending on the wishes of each country.
Nuclear weapons stockpiles in Europe had been reduced by 80 per cent in recent years, he said. The alliance espoused the principle of the free market so members were entitled to buy weapons from the source which met their purposes. He took the view that what mattered was not the kind of weapons but the fact that "we never get to the fight stage".
Mr Ben Briscoe (FF) said he was "very conscious of the fact that but for NATO, Ireland would have been behind the Iron Curtain a long time ago". Mr Gay Mitchell (FG) said it was time for a more healthy debate on the issue. The Democratic Left leader, Mr Proinsias De Rossa, said he strongly opposed Ireland joining NATO in its present form.
Former Fianna Fail minister for foreign affairs Mr Michael O'Kennedy said ail his party had always supported a policy of neutrality and had strong reservations about the arms industry and about "weaponry for death". Mr Kirby's espousal of the philosophy of the free market in relation to weapons would lead to "very very grave reservations" and NATO did have a responsibility for its members.
Senator Paschal Mooney (FF) asked why, with the end of the Warsaw Pact, NATO should continue. Mr Kirby said its members did not want it to be abolished.