AONTÚ LEADER PEADAR Tóibín has said he was offered the opportunity to meet with Russian president Vladimir Putin while he was a Sinn Féin TD in 2017.

He has called on all political parties and independents to audit TDs and Senators to “ensure no undue influence from Russia or any other country”. 

Tóibín’s comments follow a Sunday Times report that Russian intelligence used a “honeytrap” to recruit an Irish politician as an agent during the Brexit talks, with one of the aims being to undermine relations between Britain, Ireland and the EU.

The paper also reported that while the Irish military and security services identified the potential agent, code-named Cobalt, they remain in the country’s parliament.

Taoiseach Simon Harris yesterday said that “it shouldn’t come as any surprise to any of us that Russia seeks to influence public opinion and is active in relation to that across the world and that Ireland is not immune from that”.

Harris added that he is “satisfied that our gardaí and our intelligence services working internationally with counterparts take this issue very seriously.”

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Tóibín said that in 2017, he was approached by a consultancy firm and “offered a trip with a five-star hotel and to meet Vladimir Putin”.

“This obviously struck me as very strange and a little bit incredible,” added Tóibín.

He said he was not interested in the offer “given the anti-democratic nature of Putin”.

Tóibín added that he has “always been against junkets” and that there is no such thing as a “free lunch”.

“I think that these can represent undue influence, and if that influence is coming from outside the country, I think that’s very dangerous,” said Tóibín.

“The idea that there is an Oireachtas member potentially in the Dáil who is working for Russian intelligence is quite treacherous.

“I think every political party has a responsibility now to carry out a very quick audit to see if any of their TDs or Senators have been approached.”

Tóibín added that it is “important that political parties are very open and transparent in relation to any contacts that have been made to them by the Russian government”.

The Aontú leader also said it is not possible to “serve two masters”.

“The idea of working for an outside agency or another country is absolutely wrong.,” said Tóibín.

“As an elected representative, you’re there to represent your own constituents in your constituency.

“I think that all political parties should very quickly close down any, let’s say, ‘intrigue’ there is around this and be upfront in saying what they have or haven’t done.”

Further elaborating on the 2017 approach that was made, Tóibín said he “received a couple of phone calls from a consultancy firm”.

“That consultancy firm mentioned that there was a trade fair happening and there would be thousands of people from all over the world.

“They added that it was a good opportunity to represent Ireland and subsequently, I was told there would be a political element to it, and that meetings could be arranged with the head of the Russian government.”

Tóibín said his “instinct is that the Russian government is a government that has very, very anti-democratic instincts”.

“It’s not something that I would be interested in being associated with whatsoever,” he added.

Tóibín was a Sinn Féin TD at the time and said he passed the information on the approach to the International Department of the party.

The Aontú leader said it is his that Sinn Féin did not send anyone to the event in question.

Sinn Féin has been approached for comment.

Meanwhile, Tóibín noted that some people “see a light side to all of this” but cautioned that it leaves Ireland open to the “threat of undue influence”.

“The world is in a very serious situation with the war in Ukraine,” said Tóibín, “and given the fact that Ireland obviously plays a role within the European Union and can have influence on processes, there’s no doubt in my mind that Ireland would be potentially a target for Russian espionage as well.”

He added: “It is beyond treacherous for any elected rep of the people to actively use their office to pursue the interests of any other nation, never mind the current Putin regime.

“I am not looking for a witch hunt but political parties and independents need to quickly and openly investigate this potential threat and bring it out into the open.”