The Government's proposed Defence Forces cutbacks would make the Army, Air Corps and Naval Service unviable, a former chief-of-staff warned yesterday.
Lieut Gen Gerry McMahon said that the cuts proposed in the White Paper would reduce the Defence Forces to two brigades at a time when Ireland's international security and peacekeeping commitments were increasing.
"I know that the Department of Finance wants to reduce it to one brigade - as we had in 1934," he said.
Leaks about Government proposals have fuelled military concerns that the Government intends to reduce the size of the Defence Forces from 11,500 to 10,800 or fewer.
"We have an increasing responsibility under the EU common security policy," Lieut Gen McMahon said. "We have signed up to the crisis management side of that which will require more troops, yet it comes at a time when we have a White Paper saying we need less."
Comdt Brian O'Keeffe, general secretary of the officers' representative body, RACO, said the bottom-line figure was 11,500, but they believed efforts were under way to cut this to below 9,000 or 8,000.
According to Mr John Lucey, general secretary of the Defence Forces' representative body, PDFORRA, the proposals were "a small-minded cost-cutting exercise, lacking in vision with no regard for present commitments or future potential of the Defence Forces".
The Fine Gael defence spokeswoman, Ms Frances Fitzgerald, urged the Taoiseach to intervene personally to ensure that the bottom-line 11,500 figure was maintained. "If the Minister for Defence agrees to anything less, then he has failed the Defence Forces and the country's reputation internationally," she said.
The Labour spokesman, Mr Jack Wall, said the White Paper would deliver a huge blow to the morale and competence of the Defence Forces.