The Progressive Democrats, Opposition parties and soldiers' representatives have all condemned proposals to impose further major cutbacks on the Defence Forces.
The proposals have been made by the Department of Finance in a submission on the forthcoming White Paper on Defence. They propose reducing the size of the Army from three brigades to one and the amalgamation of the Air Corps and the Naval Service into a coastguard service.
If implemented they would be expected to lead to a substantial reduction in Defence Forces personnel.
The Minister for Defence and the Defence Forces General Staff said yesterday that the Department of Finance submission was just one of 40 received in relation to the forthcoming White Paper on the Defence Forces.
However, together with the submissions from the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces, it would be among the three with the most weight. The Department of Finance has advocated substantial cuts in the Defence Forces for a number of years.
Despite calls on him to dissociate himself from the proposals, the Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, yesterday expressed no view on the merits of further substantial cuts. He said some White Paper submissions were supportive of an expansion of the Defence Forces while others were not. All submissions were part of the consultative process on the White Paper and were being carefully considered.
The White Paper is expected to be completed by the end of this year.
The Defence Forces General Staff said the publication of parts of the Department of Finance's submission was "counterproductive and has created further unease within the Defence Forces".
The Defence Forces were already implementing a major restructuring programme, expected to take 10 years, and this included a comprehensive equipment purchase plan.
PDFORRA, which represents Defence Forces personnel excluding commissioned officers, warned politicians yesterday that they would suffer electorally if they supported cuts. The association has estimated in the past that up to 250,000 people have links with the Defence Forces through a relative as a present or past serving member of the Army, Naval Service, Air Corps or FCA.
PDFORRA accused Department of Defence officials of colluding with the Department of Finance to bring about the "decimation" of the Defence Forces. "These single-agenda officials have no regard for policy, roles or strategic planning but merely the achievement of significant cost savings on an organisation which has always been an easy target," according to PDFORRA.
"Only last week the Taoiseach announced that later this year the Defence Forces would most likely be participating in PFP, and today we find that officials are planning to ensure we don't have a single soldier available to participate in related training or operations."
There was strong criticism of the Finance proposals yesterday from Opposition politicians, with Fine Gael's spokeswoman, Ms Frances Fitzgerald TD, saying they were "ludicrous". A new three-brigade structure had recently been agreed, and legislation to that effect was passed in the Dail, said Ms Fitzgerald. This, and the agreement that the three arms of the Defence Forces should have 11,600 personnel in all, had been agreed following a detailed analysis in the Price Waterhouse report on restructuring the Defence Forces.
She said that given the Taoiseach's statement of support last week for joining Partnership for Peace "it is ludicrous at this time to be putting forward proposals that effectively scale down the Defence Forces, so much so that we could not participate effectively in peacekeeping internationally."
Labour's defence spokesman, Mr Jack Wall, said the Department of Finance proposal "utterly ignores the contribution the Defence Forces make to Irish society and further afield". The Minister should publicly reject these proposals or morale in the Defence Forces, already at an all-time low, would fall further.
The Progressive Democrats' spokesman, Mr John Dardis, also called for the rejection of the proposals, saying they would "effectively destroy our Defence Forces and make it totally impossible for Ireland to participate in the international peacekeeping work it has undertaken with distinction for 40 years".