Report spurs effort to oust foreign agents from parliament

Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín has called on all political parties and independents to audit TDs and Senators to ensure they are under “no undue influence” after reports that a member of the Dublin parliament is secretly working on behalf of the Russian government.

According to a report by the Sunday Times, an unidentified member of the Oireachtas, who the newspaper dubbed ‘Cobalt’, was recruited by Russia after he was compromised by a female agent in a so-called “honeytrap” operation.

The politician in question was asked to support Russia in regard to Brexit and was asked to develop contacts with paramilitaries. A surveillance operation found they met Sergey Prokopiev, a Russian spy who worked out of the Russian embassy in Dublin between 2019 and 2022.

In a meeting outside Dublin, the politician, who was under surveillance by both the 26 County military and police, offered to connect Prokopiev to unidentified paramilitaries in the north of Ireland at a sensitive time in the Brexit talks.

Although reportedly being formally warned by Gardai, no action was ever taken against the TD or Senator, as under Irish law, his actions are not illegal.

Taoiseach Simon Harris has brushed off concerns, saying Russian activity in Ireland “should come as no surprise to anyone”.

Russia’s influence pales in comparison with the control exerted by Britain, most obviously in the ongoing direction of the Gardaí by the MI5-linked Commissioner, Drew Harris. Two years ago, a senior Irish official was also revealed to have been working for British military intelligence for more than three decades.

The news has also deflected from the recent scandal over Minister for Public Expenditure, Paschal Donohoe, who was exposed by the Ditch website as having secretly advised Israeli officials on blocking the Occupied Territories bill to cut trade ties with Israeli goods and services produced in illegal settlements – an allegation he denies.

Deputy Tóibín said the idea that there is potentially someone 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,” he said.

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”.

He said he had himself received a strange offer in 2017 for a free trip to Russia, including the opportunity of a meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin.

He said he was not interested “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”.

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 first invitation, emailed to Mr Tóibín in 2017, read: “We would love if we could get you or a member of Sinn Féin to join us at our conference on the 1st of December at the five-star Sheraton in Moscow.

“With a view to attending the International Economic Forum in Yalta in March 2018 with a bipartisan approach. Every country’s delegation brings their own politician. We feel that Sinn Féin is the only [political party] in Ireland that would be suitable because of their understanding of peace and business.

“This is a huge trade mission with around 1,500 attendees globally. We don’t want this to be political, just for an Irish politician to gain an understanding of the situation in Crimea.”

The invitation added: “President Putin will be attending.”

The businesswoman explained she worked for a company which was set up “to support bilateral trade between Russia and Ireland”.

“It is our business to quickly leverage opportunities across borders, to facilitate business-to-business connections with a view to a win/win commercial goal for all our clients,” she said.

The woman said there would be “a lot of high net-worth individuals attending”, and added: “We think promoting Ireland as a tourism/trade destination is important.”

Mr Tóibín said all TDs and senators should now declare if they have gone on such trips.

“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,” he said.

“Political parties and Independents need to quickly and openly investigate this potential threat and bring it out into the open.”

Urgent Appeal