The republic would be expected to provide additional military and police for major EU-led peacekeeping and humanitarian missions under the terms of a draft report due to be discussed at next week's Council of Ministers meeting in Feira, Portugal.
The proposal is understood to provide the basis for the European Rapid Reaction Force of between 40,000 and 60,000 soldiers, as well as some 5,000 police officers. The draft report is entitled Strengthening the Common European Security and Defence Policy.
It is expected that this military-police force would be ready to move, within 30 days, to provide an important support role in any major humanitarian, peacekeeping or rescue mission.
Although no precise terms for Irish involvement have yet been outlined, The Irish Times understands that the Defence Forces could be expected to provide a battalion-strength, all-arms, mechanised infantry contingent. This could entail between 700 and 800 troops equipped with a variety of weapons and armoured personnel carriers (APCs), and an ability to move quickly to any part of the world.
The Irish force would also be required to have what is termed "inter-operability" with the rest of the EU force. In other words, it would be required to have command structures, training and weapons which would allow it to fit in with, and successfully serve alongside, other elements of an EU force.
Participation in such an EU force would be likely to put pressure on available resources in the Defence Forces, according to military sources.
With the additional contribution of 50 troops to the UNIFIL mission from next week, the Defence Forces will have a record number of 920 soldiers serving on peacekeeping missions, most of them UN-led. The Defence Forces have a higher percentage of troops serving with the UN and on other international peacekeeping missions than any other army.
The Defence Forces are in the process of acquiring 40 new armoured personnel carriers from the Austrian armaments manufacturer, Mowag, at a cost of at least £40 million. These would be central to the provision of any rapid-reaction infantry battalion.
However, the Defence Forces do not have any troops- or equipment-carrying aircraft or ships, and would have either to charter aircraft or rely on other armies.
The draft report before the EU Council in Portugal is also to seek an increase in the number of police officers available in the EU for working on foreign peacekeeping missions to around 5,000 by the year 2003.
If, as expected, the report is endorsed, each EU state will be asked to increase the number of military and police available for service under what are termed the "Petersberg Tasks". These include providing military and police support for peacekeeping, humanitarian and rescue missions abroad under the auspices of the EU.
There is broad agreement within the EU that it should provide greater support for such missions, particularly since the perceived failure to play a leading role in preventing some of the crises in the Balkans.
The report does not, as indicated in some media reports, propose a standing EU military or police force. Instead, each state is likely to be asked to provide a contingent which would be ready to move quickly to any area of the world where the EU engages in such humanitarian or other missions.
At the moment gardai participate in international peacekeeping and programmes involving unarmed policing under the auspices of the United Nations in Cyprus and the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) in former Yugoslavia.