The Labour Party yesterday published details of a Private Member's Bill providing for a consultative plebiscite of the people before the State joins Partnership for Peace (PfP), the umbrella organisation affiliated with NATO.
The party leader, Mr Ruairi Quinn, said he feared what he called the underhand way in which Fianna Fail and the PDs were attempting to push PfP membership through without reference to the people.
"The Government have argued that no constitutional amendment is required to allow Ireland to join PfP. However, similar advice was provided to the last government and that advice was in the public domain at the very time when Fianna Fail was making its cynical promise to the electorate to have a referendum in an attempt to gain every last political advantage at the 1997 general election," Mr Quinn said.
"Against this background there is a strong moral and political obligation on Fianna Fail to honour the commitment it made", he said.
The Labour Party Bill provides for the State not to enter a PfP arrangement with NATO unless the Government first lays a draft of the presentation document before each House of the Oireachtas. The Bill further provides that the presentation document is put to the people by way of a consultative plebiscite.
While a consultative plebiscite is not referred to or provided for in the Constitution, there is no constitutional bar on holding such a plebiscite.