Damien held a heated debate on Irish neutrality on Déise Today, with very opposing views aired on the issue.

Daniel McConnell, Political Editor with the Irish Examiner, and Kieran Allen, author and lecturer in Sociology at UCD joined Damien on this morning's show.

Daniel, who wrote an article in The Irish Examiner saying Ireland needs to abandon its neutrality, argues that for decades the country's defence mechanisms and strategies are wholly inadequate. He pointed out that this is something that was highlighted in recent times when "Russian war games were threatened off the West coast."

Daniel pointed out that Ireland's spending on Defence is now down at 0.2 percent of GDP, compared to 1.6 percent in 1980.

"We've been reliant on the UK, America and others to basically bolster our defences because we're not in a position to do so by ourselves. As a starting point my argument is if we want to be taken seriously as a grown-up independent country, we need to be able to defend ourselves, and that means proper Defence spending," he said, by way of opening the debate.

Daniel added that in a post-Brexit world, and in a European Union context, we need to look at our strategical alliances, advocating that we should join NATO.

In response, Kieran Allen said the idea that Ireland is about to be "overrun" by another nation is not valid, listing several countries that Russia invaded during the decades of Ireland's neutrality without the country ever being under threat.

"It's not quite clear who the attack is from," he added in response to Daniel's claim that Ireland needs to defend itself better.

While both men agree that the government has a relatively low budget for Defence, Kieran doesn't think that money from other departments, such as from Public Health and Housing, should be diverted into Defence.

He also accused the mainstream media of being on a mission to get Ireland to join NATO, a military alliance which he claims has been involved in serious violence in other countries.

Daniel McConnell came back at this point, and said Kieran's comments were "rot and nonsense" based on conspiracy theories.  He argued that we've been involved with NATO missions on a peacekeeping basis since the wake of the Good Friday agreement in 1998.

Daniel believes that Ireland must play its part in stopping dictators such as Putin, labelling Kieran as a "well meaning Leftie."

As a retort, Kieran described Daniel is an "apologist for American foreign policy," asking why he's not more concerned with stopping the occupation of Palestine.

Have a listen to their full debate through the link in this podcast.

And for all Déise podcasts, click here.