Opposition politicians will gather today at a public rally to “save the Triple Lock”, which they believe is necessary to protect Ireland’s neutrality.

The Government have sought to reform the Triple Lock, which bans the deployment of Irish troops overseas without a mandate from the UN Security Council.

As Russia has a veto on the Security Council, there are concerns it could stop Irish troops being sent to Ukraine to carry out peacekeeping duties.

2MB4WEM President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, shakes hands with Ireland's Prime Minister Micheal Martin in Kyiv, Ukraine, Wednesday, July 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Andrew Kravchenko)

However, opposition politicians have said the current system is key to protecting the country’s neutral position, which they claim would be damaged by suggested changes.

Tánaiste and Minister for Defence Simon Harris has proposed that the number of Defence Force personnel that could be deployed as part of an overseas peace operation without triggering the Triple Lock should inreace from 12 to 50.

The draft legislation also seeks to remove the requirement of formal UN approval and instead replace it with a condition that deployments must be in accordance with the UN Charter.

Independent Senator Alice-Mary Higgins told Newstalk Breakfast that the Triple Lock provides necessary protection against "inappropriate military activity".

“If we engage in military activity right now, we know that it is under UN principles, it’s under universal principles,” she said.

“What we are seeing is a move towards a mitre’s right and the idea of military activity in terms of interests, whereby military activity is about profit, it’s about interest, it’s about alliances.

"Rather than the protection of those universal rights of principal.”

The rally takes place today at 2pm in the Gresham Hotel on O’Connell Street in Dublin.

Main image: Irish Defence Forces arm patch of a soldier in the Irish Army. Image: Andy Gibson / Alamy. 19 October 2016