THE Minister of State for European Affairs, Mr Gay Mitchell, has been criticised for circulating schools and libraries, at taxpayers' expense, with extracts from articles by him on the future of the EU and, particularly, Ireland's security options.

The Munster Fianna Fail MEP, Mr Brian Crowley, has denounced what he called "the use of taxpayers' money to circulate anti neutrality propaganda to schools."

With the Government pledged to conduct a referendum on any change in Ireland's neutrality, and in the wake of the McKenna Judgement which prohibited State funding for one side of a referendum case, Mr Mitchell may find more than Mr Crowley upset with him.

Mr Mitchell is chairman of the interdepartmental "Communicating Europe" sub committee charged with the Government's information campaign on Europe.

It recently sent out some 40,000 leaflets entitled "20 Questions and Answers about the EU". The committee circulated, at the same time, about half that number of leaflets headed "Message from Gay Mitchell TD", containing reprints of two edited articles the Minister had written for The Irish Times.

One of the articles deals uncontroversially with the institutional reform of the EU. The other, headed "Defence and Security in a Stable Europe", speculates on whether a review in 1997 of the treaty of the Western European Union could make full Irish membership acceptable.

At present Ireland is an observer at the WEU, the European arm of Nato, which many see evolving to become the EU's defence arm. One major obstacle to Irish membership is a commitment in Article 5 of the WEU Treaty to the automatic defence of fellow members if attacked a commitment that is incompatible, all agree, with military neutrality.

Mr Mitchell speculates that the current review of both EU and WEU treaties "will present a unique opportunity to consider the arrangements for future European security and defence".

If the WEU were prepared to amend Article 5 to allow current neutral members of the EU to opt out of its commitment, perhaps Ireland could join, Mr Mitchell suggests.

We will not be under pressure to abandon our traditional role of neutrality", the leaflet argues. "However we must consider in a cool and rational way Ireland's role in a future Europe which can be made stable and secure."

Mr Crowley argues that the leaflet "amounts to an argument for Irish membership of the WEU, a military bloc with nuclear capacity." The WEU called last month, he points out, for the exploration of the role of nuclear weapons as part of a European defence.

Describing the Minister's arguments as both "ill informed and spurious", Mr Crowley attacks the expenditure of public money on what he says is a "one sided" case which does not make the argument for continued Irish neutrality - "an offence compounded by the fact that it is schools and colleges that are the target."

Responding, Mr Mitchell has issued a statement describing Mr Crowley's comments as being "as strange a piece of publicity seeking as I have seen" which "seeks to confuse, not serve the public on an important issue of public affairs".

He insists that the leaflet was sent out as part of the Communicating Europe initiative - "nothing in these articles does anything more than set out the options which the IGC will negotiate."

And, in the spirit of the principle that the best form of defence is attack, the Minister adds: "The WEU ... was joined by Ireland as observer member at the behest of Fianna Fail."