The Government is reviewing its opposition to participation in the NATO-sponsored Partnership for Peace.
The first moves in this regard were signalled by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, yesterday. He told the House he was keeping Irish participation in the PFP under "close and active review" and welcomed the continuing public debate on the matter.
PfP, which involves Irish troops serving with NATO forces on peace-keeping missions, has existed since 1994. The White Paper on Foreign Policy, issued in 1996, foresaw Irish participation in PfP though a formal government decision was deferred by the Rainbow government.
Openly acknowledging that Fianna Fail opposed such participation before the last general election, Mr Andrews said he had reviewed the question when he became Minister.
He had concluded that his twofold priority should be to enhance understanding and informed discussion of the realities of the partnership and, in consequence, to move discussion away from the polarised views and slogans which seemed to him to characterise a good deal of such discussion as there was about PfP, on either side of the argument.
Mr Andrews said he had briefed the Government, "with particular reference to the fact that PFP has developed since 1994, but more particularly over the last year, into a major framework for co-operation, training and preparation for UN-mandated peace-keeping, humanitarian tasks and crisis management".
The Permanent Defence Forces are largely in favour of participation in PfP largely because of the gradual reduction in United Nations peace-keeping operations which could mean large-scale involvement by Irish troops.
The last Chief-of-Staff, Lt Gen Gerry McMahon, advocated membership, pointing out that only European "micro-nations" were not involved in PFP.
The only European countries outside PfP are Cyprus, the Holy See, Malta, Monaco, San Marino, the former Yugoslavian countries and Ireland.
But one problem about joining a military arrangement such as PfP is the Defence Forces' shortage of equipment.
It currently has only two armoured personnel carriers and no troop-carrying helicopters. The Government has recently agreed to the purchase of as many as 20 armoured personnel carriers. NATO controls the partnership. Its stated objective is to enhance European security by deepening military and political ties, particularly between NATO members and the eastern European democracies which emerged with the collapse of Soviet control.
It was envisaged that the PfP would be a means by which smaller nations' armies could become involved in NATO training exercises and take an active roll in major peace-keeping and humanitarian exercises.
PfP membership would take the Republic a step closer to participation in a proper European-wide defence structure. A further step would be either membership of NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, which is largely American-led) or the WEU (Western European Union which is, as its name implies, largely a Euro-centred military alliance but still largely a notional military structure).
The Republic is a member of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) along with all European countries, including the micro-states and even Switzerland. Its brief is limited purely to peace-keeping and humanitarian tasks.