Taoiseach Micheál Martin has described as "nonsense" a claim from the Kremlin that Ireland is losing its neutrality.
Last week, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the European Union and Ukraine were attempting to interfere with Ireland’s neutral status.
She said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was running a "campaign to build up the EU defence potential" and wanted Ireland to lose its "self-imposed military-political restraints".
Ms Zakharova also made a reference to the Triple Lock, mentioning the Taoiseach by name and accusing him of "revising the constitutional restraints on Irish military involvement in foreign missions".
She made the statement following a conference held in Dublin by the European Commission titled 'Security and Democracy in Europe in the shadow of Russia’s War against Ukraine’ on Wednesday 5 November.
Speaking in South Africa today on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Mr Martin dismissed the claims as "not true" and "propaganda".
He said: "It’s nonsense, it’s not true, it’s propaganda basically.
"There’s been a lot of hybrid attacks going on across Europe, we’re very conscious of that.
"At the Copenhagen informal European Council meeting, the comment was made that when you see a pattern of events happening, you can detect what’s going on.
"A lot of misinformation as well and so there’s a lot of stuff going on at the moment which is a consequence of the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the war there.
"There’s a lot of tension and concern within the European Union, in particular about the recklessness of some of what has happened over the last number of months."
Mr Martin said Ireland had concerns in terms of "critical" undersea infrastructure.
He added that this was why Ireland was cooperating with other countries to "protect our economic security both in terms of gas connectors and subsea cables".
