The Government has no plans to withdraw from the Partnership for Peace, Minister of State for Defence Paul Kehoe has said.

He plans to attend a Nato summit in Warsaw next month. “I really believe this will be beneficial to the Defence Forces in interoperability and in being able to look at the way other states operate.”

He said participation in Partnership for Peace “is fundamental to Ireland being able to meet its obligations in providing professional peacekeepers for international crisis management and peacekeeping operations mandated by the UN”.

Ireland co-operates with Nato through the Partnership for Peace, which the State joined in 1999.

The State participated in the partnership “to improve Defence Forces’ capabilities to ensure that our Defence Forces are interoperable with the forces of other states engaged in UN-mandated crisis management operations”, the Minister said.

Partnership

Sinn Féin defence spokesman Aengus Ó Snodaigh questioned the need for Ireland to participate in the partnership given the State’s numerous commitments to UN-mandated missions. He said: “Regretfully we have committed to the EU battle group, so why in God’s name would we have anything to do with Nato or its Partnership for Peace at this stage.”

Mr Ó Snodaigh described Nato as a cold war relic that should have been disbanded years ago.“It should not be allowed to further threaten the stability of the EU or the stability of the world.”

He said Ireland was the “poor cousin” in terms of military equipment, and interoperability with the EU battle groups, the Partnership for Peace and the European Defence Agency “brings with it a significant cost to the taxpayer which is covered up whenever one talks about it. It is obscene.”

Rather than continuing it was more appropriate for the Government to withdraw.

“If the Minister of State is going to the Nato summit he should indicate our refusal to continue to co-operate in spending on increasing our capability when we are a neutral state.”