Members of the Reserve Defence Force will soon be deployed with full-time soldiers in United Nations missions in international trouble spots such as Darfur and Liberia, the Chief of Staff of the Defence Forces, Lieut Gen Jim Sreenan, has said.
The most able of the 13,000 reservists will be "hand-picked" and deployed on a strictly voluntary basis. They will be paid for their service.
In an interview with The Irish Times Gen Sreenan said he believed reservists would help to alleviate pressure on the 10,500 full-time soldiers, as the Defence Forces became more involved in increasingly "complex and robust" missions overseas.
He rejected suggestions that increased participation in such missions and in UN battle groups compromised Ireland's neutrality, saying international military deployments were vital to securing the working environment in developing countries for NGOs and other agencies.
"With military force you can develop security. But as Kofi Annan has said, there is no development without security, and there is no security without development."
While many missions would be dangerous and volatile in the future, such risk was necessary.
"People are inclined to think that 'ah, we're going to go in because it's safe'. But if it's safe, what's the point in going in? There's no need."
On equipment, he said immediate priorities were the replacement of three vessels in the Naval Service fleet and the acquisition of light tactical vehicles for overseas missions.
Gen Sreenan said Army intelligence officers and the Garda had to remain vigilant to the threat posed by Islamic extremists in Ireland who, he said, might seek to launch an attack on Britain from here.
The Army's intelligence service was a lot more active now than before the attacks in the US on September 11th, 2001, he said.
"There's a threat on our back door, in the UK. And there's always a danger that people would use Ireland as a back door to the UK.
"You only have to look across the water in England to see what has been happening since 9/11. You only have to look at the Continent and see what, in Madrid in particular, has happened. One would be very foolish to presume that something couldn't happen here," Gen Sreenan said.
He said that while the Army deafness compensation controversy had been damaging to the Defence Forces, he believed they had now "climbed out" of much of the negativity.
The military parade at Easter had been very well received by the public and he had received "a flood of letters" from members of the public after it. "There was a tremendous reaction to it."