The Department of Defence has confirmed that a Pentagon-based US company has been appointed to oversee a redesign of the Defence Forces.
It said the Institute for Security Governance (ISG) was identified as the "most suitable and appropriate" by the Defence Forces to carry out a force design which was recommended by the Commission on the Defence Forces.
In a statement to RTÉ News, the department said ISG has "significant expertise and experience in force design and development" and has worked with over 80 nations.
However, the contract has been criticised in the Dáil by the People Before Profit leader Richard Boyd Barrett who said it was an example of why Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael "should not be trusted on Irish neutrality".
"For example, the Department of Defence has just contracted a US defence agency, based in the Pentagon, in order to redesign the Irish defence forces," he said.
"On the blurb on their website it says this US-based Pentagon company is grounded in, quote, American values," he said.
"Maybe the values of Donald Trump who has put out the video you may have seen about Gaza, with statues of Trump and dollar signs made by Trump in Gaza," Mr Boyd Barrett added.
He was speaking as Minister for Defence and Tánaiste Simon Harris took questions in the Dáil over the Government's commitment to bringing forward legislation to amend the Triple Lock, which requires approval from the Government, the Dáil and the UN for any deployment of Irish peacekeeping troops to a UN peacekeeping mission.
Mr Boyd Barrett told Mr Harris that "your Government is waging a very thinly veiled stealth war against Irish neutrality" and to "involve us in the wars of big powers".
Independent TD for Galway West Catherine Connolly said there is a "carefully choreographed campaign to get rid of our neutrality" and accused the Government of "changing the Triple Lock against the wishes of the people of Ireland".
However, the Tánaiste responded that "you can be militarily neutral" while also believing that the UN Security Council should not have a veto on where Irish peacekeepers go.
"Those two positions are absolutely, completely and utterly consistent with each other," he said.
Mr Harris also referred to the UN Security Council veto as "the Vladimir Putin veto".
"Vladimir Putin has no right to say where men and women of Óglaigh na hÉireann go on peacekeeping missions – none whatsoever. We won't comment on his elections, but he certainly wasn't elected to this Dáil."
Mr Harris insisted he wants to retain military neutrality and will engage constructively with the Opposition in any legislation to amend the Triple Lock.
However, Sinn Féin’s spokesperson on defence Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked what missions the Government wanted to take part in without a UN mandate.
"Whatever about your bone fides, the effect of this is to undermine Irish neutrality," he said.
One of the "fundamental reasons" on which the Lisbon Treaty was sold to the Irish people, he said, was that "it was to strengthen our position and the international respect of the Triple Lock".
However, Mr Harris said the context has changed, whereas once Russian presidents were invited to this country, Mr Putin is now invading a country on the continent of Europe.
"I am having an out-of-body experience here because I am in favour of Irish neutrality, the Government of Ireland is in favour of Irish neutrality, the Government of Ireland values Irish neutrality.
"But you know what I also value? This place and the mandate of the men and women who get elected to Dáil Éireann in terms of decisions in relation to our Defence Forces.
"The idea of seconding that out to anybody else is ludicrous in itself. The idea of seconding it out to anybody else, that includes Vladimir Putin, is downright illogical," he said.
Social Democrats TD Sinéad Gibney said: "Both Government parties have moved their position from recognising the integral part that is played by the triple lock into Iris neutrality to now being on the record as saying that is not the case."
