In an uncharacteristically strident attack on the Green Party, the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, has said that its "entirely negative" views on Europe meant that it would be preferable if it was not represented in the Strasbourg parliament.
His comments, during the start of Fianna Fail's European election campaign in Dublin yesterday, led to an immediate angry response from the Green Party, which has accused the Taoiseach of trying to score cheap political points and using the party as a camouflage for his intention not to hold a referendum on membership of Partnership for Peace.
"It should not be the role of Irish representatives to play domestic politics on to the European stage or to undermine or sabotage the presentation of Irish interests in Brussels. We should not send representatives to Strasbourg who have an anti-European outlook, who have opposed any or every development of the European Union, the Single European Act, the Maastricht Treaty or the Amsterdam Treaty", Mr Ahern said.
Rejecting the Taoiseach's assertions, the Dublin Green Party MEP, Ms Patricia McKenna, accused Mr Ahern of diverting attention away from his support for "a European military superstate".
"To be against NATO's PfP and the militarisation of the EU is not to be anti-Europe", Ms McKenna said. "It is to be against making Europe into a vast, nuclear weapons-based military super state. And that is not why Ireland joined the EU."
The Leinster Green Party MEP, Ms Nuala Ahern, expressed "astonishment" at the Taoiseach's attack. "It is sad to see the Taoiseach engaging in negative politics, and I can only assume that it is to camouflage the U-turns which he has made, not only on a commitment to hold a referendum on PfP, but also on environmental issues like genetic engineering."
Instead of behaving negatively, Green Party representatives had fought in the European Parliament to protect Irish consumers, Ms Ahern said.
Confirming that the Government intended to issue its information paper on Partnership for Peace within 48 hours, the Taoiseach insisted that there was no need for a referendum on the matter. Over 70 per cent of the electorate would favour a referendum on Ireland joining the PfP, according to the latest Irish Times/MRBI poll.
"It remains the Government's firm position that there is no need for a referendum. No other country, not even Switzerland, has had a referendum - and they have one most weekends. Neutrality is not an issue", the Taoiseach said. Switzerland was perceived as "the world's great neutral country" and regularly referred issues to its people. However, it had not seen fit to put PfP to the electorate for approval.
Every member of PfP negotiated its own conditions of participation. The Government - and Fianna Fail - held the view that Ireland should "actively engage" in areas of humanitarian need. If asked to participate, in some indirect way in a mission to Kosovo, the Government would "look at that case".
It was inevitable that the EU, at some point in the future, would try to put together a different common security policy. If this affected Ireland's neutrality, the matter would be "put to the people . . . but we are not at that stage today".
The Government document on PfP would make a compelling case for Ireland's membership and the State should have the confidence to participate. PfP was "a minor issue compared with the developing European security debate".
The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Andrews, had done a great deal of work in preparing for PfP and the Government would undertake the process of joining "as early as possible . . . certainly in the second half of the year", Mr Ahern added.