"Working directly with a trusted partner like France allows us to reduce risks, benefit from proven expertise, and ensure that our forces have reliable and interoperable equipment for the future," Irish Defence Minister Helen McEntee said in a statement.

Ireland and France will now begin negotiations on a potential agreement, focused on the French Scorpion armoured vehicle programme, the only one "capable of providing all the required capabilities", according to Dublin.

This programme, launched in 2014, "combines vehicles of different types and links them through a secure communications network, with the aim of creating a more coherent and more responsive land force", it said.

Once negotiations on the size of the fleet, as well as the timetable and costs, are completed, a framework agreement could be finalised, prior to acquisitions.

The development of a modern armoured fleet is one of its priorities, along with anti-drone technologies, after unidentified drones were detected during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky's visit to Dublin on December 1.

Negotiations are also underway with France to acquire a military radar system.

Ireland, an EU member but militarily neutral, has a small army and possesses neither a combat air force nor a significant naval fleet.

Its threadbare military has come under heightened scrutiny as it prepares to assume the six-month presidency of the European Union in early July, when it will host summits for the bloc's leaders.

Dublin announced last December a 55 percent hike in military spending, with a 1.7 billion euros spending plan running through 2030.

McEntee is also expected to unveil Wednesday a new maritime security plan including moves to increase cooperation with NATO and the EU under a new strategy to protect the country's seas and sub-sea infrastructure.