The former Defence Forces chief of staff hit out at Lisbon No campaigners today claiming they were painting the country’s military as a Latin American dictatorship.
Lt Gen Colm Mangan said a host of mistruths about the treaty needed to be dispelled.
“I think people should get real. There’s an awful lot of false propaganda out there,” he said.
“There has been an awful lot of misleading information and I have to say that some of the posters will annoy me.
“They imply that there is some form of military elite within this country, something akin to a Latin American dictatorship or junta that’s about to take over. That’s a load of nonsense.”
Lt Gen Mangan told an Ireland for Europe pro-Lisbon event in Dublin, a Yes vote would not mean an automatic ramp up in military spending.
“An Bord Snip Nua identified the Defence Forces, it was one of the few areas in the state that couldn’t be cut because they already have very careful quantities of expenditure at the present time,” he said.
“It’s absolute nonsense to say that there’s pressure on to increase military spending in this country.” Lt Gen Pat Nash, former commander of the EU mission to Chad said the treaty would give the union more power to protect the most vulnerable around the world.
“Our development of our capabilities has been huge for us under the European Union, our credibility as a Defence Forces and our capacity to influence and to undertake peacekeeping in its broader dimensions has been brought to the table,” he added.
“I don’t believe that we should regress back to being a little island on the edge of Europe with maybe some other major nation having an undue influence on us.”
PA