The Taoiseach has been asked to intervene in the increasingly difficult dispute between the Defence Forces and Civil Service over proposals to cut the military by a further 1,000 troops.
The call comes as a former chief-of-staff of the Defence Forces, writing in The Irish Times, accuses the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, of failing to keep a promise of "continuous recruitment" to maintain the military strength at 11,500.
Lieut Gen Gerry McMahon says the promises were made in statements and media briefings but were not adhered to. He pointed out that the forces had been allowed to fall to 10,900 as part of a strategy to reduce it to 10,500 or less.
Lieut Gen McMahon says the draft White Paper on Defence had been drawn up with the intention of setting up the Defence Forces for a "coup de grace".
He describes the draft White Paper, drawn up by the Department of Defence, as "shoddy and unprofessional".
Lieut Gen McMahon also points out that the State's expenditure on defence, at 0.8 per cent of Gross National Product, is less than half the EU average of 1.7 per cent.
He also says that other countries have far fewer civil servants to administer much larger armies. Denmark, with an army of 29,000, has 62 civil servants. The Republic, with a defence force of 10,900, has 440 civil servants.
Yesterday the soldiers' representative association called on the Mr Ahern to intervene in the "major and unnecessary crisis now developing in regard to cutbacks".
PDFORRA (Permanent Defence Forces Other Ranks Representative Association) asked that the Taoiseach defer next week's expected Cabinet discussion of the White Paper.
The association's general secretary, Mr John Lucey, said the Cabinet should defer a decision on the White Paper until all the parties involved could sit down and develop a workable solution. "It appears that the view of the military authorities has been totally disregarded in drafting the White Paper, and this defies understanding," he said.
Mr Lucey's view is known to be shared by senior military figures who are deeply dismayed at the draft White Paper which was leaked to the media last week. Senior military management have complained that they were excluded from the decision-making process on the issues of military organisation.
The proposed cuts will be discussed today at a meeting of the Defence Forces General Staff consisting of the Chief-of-Staff, his two deputies and the chiefs of the three brigades, the Army Training College, the Air Corps and Naval Service. The meeting will be chaired by the Chief-of-Staff, Lieut Gen Dave Stapleton, who cut short a visit to Irish troops serving with the UN peacekeeping force in East Timor on hearing about the proposed cuts in the White Paper.