The Government is preparing legislation to change the protocols around the future deployment of the Defence Forces overseas.
The Triple Lock currently requires that these deployments have Government approval, the support of the Dáil and are mandated by the United Nations.
However, Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin said it now makes sense to amend existing legislation to allow the country respond to crisis situations with more agility.
"I have therefore instructed officials in the Department of Defence to prepare legislative proposals without delay that would govern the future overseas deployments of our Defence Forces," he said.
Mr Martin said this could allow the Government to dispatch Defence Forces personnel to multilateral missions overseas organised by the EU, or African Union, or where the host country is requesting support from the international community.
National security strategy
He said the change would remove the veto power of the UN Security Council.
The Tánaiste also committed to delivering a national security strategy in the coming months.
This will be accompanied by a well-resourced maritime security strategy, which will have a particular focus on subsea infrastructure.
Mr Martin insisted that the Government was not moving towards joining NATO and it was not changing the policy of military neutrality.
Fianna Fáil MEP Billy Kelleher told RTÉ's Drivetime that Ireland is a mature nation and should not be dependent on other countries to decide if it deploys troops.
He said that this should be something the Dáil is in charge of, and that Ireland needed to adapt to a changing world.
He added that this was not about joining a military alliance, and that such an idea is disingenuous
Sinn Féin said that changes to the Triple Lock marked a fundamental shift in policy and they would radically undermine Ireland's neutrality.
The party's foreign affairs spokesperson Matt Carthy said the move does not have the support of the Irish people and it should be put to them in a referendum.
Read more
Is Ireland really a neutral state?
Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín said it would move Ireland closer to a European defence union and outsource more power to the EU.
He said Ireland's neutrality should be put to the Irish people and that he had no doubt that this legislation would change Ireland's neutrality.
"Ireland will potentially put soldiers and young people in harm's way," he told RTÉ's Drivetime.
Opposition outcry
In the Dáil this afternoon, Opposition spokespeople on foreign affairs condemned the Government's stance on neutrality.
PBP-Solidarity TD Paul Murphy accused the Government of trying to "manufacture an apparent consensus towards undermining neutrality, or further undermining our neutrality, by moving us closer and closer to NATO".
Gary Gannon, Social Democrats TD, said that Ireland's position had been "etched out painstakingly" over seven decades and should be protected.
The country's unique history has allowed Ireland to appeal to both sides in conflicts, he added.
While Labour's Brendan Howlin called for "a proper debate".
"I believe we can build a consensus of the type of neutrality we can present," he insisted.
Later, in a statement, the Labour Party said the Government had "no mandate for making any changes to the Triple Lock and certainly not to seek the removal of the requirement for UN approval for Irish peacekeeping missions".
There should be no change into the current Triple Lock protections - starting to undermine these would be a dangerous path that has the potential to undermine our longstanding position of military neutrality, a principle which we believe should be enshrined in our Constitution," the statement added.
