Irish politician recruited by Russian intelligence using 'honey trap'

Reports have emerged that an Irish politician has been recruited as a Russian agent.

The Sunday Times has reported that Russian intelligence used a “honeytrap” to recruit the 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 Oireachtas.

Asked about the report by media in Dublin on Sunday, October 7, Taoiseach Simon Harris said he would not comment on matters of security, other than to say it "shouldn’t come as any surprise to any of us that Russia seeks to influence public opinion, seeks to distort public opinion and is active in relation to that across the world and that Ireland is not immune from that".

“Gardai and our security services take all of these issues extremely seriously and monitor these issues seriously, and work with international counterparts on all these matters, and I have great confidence in the ability of gardai, working with international counterparts.”

Aontu leader Peadar Tóibín revealed that he had been approached by a consultancy firm and offered a trip to Russia with a chance to meet Vladimir Putin, when he was a Sinn Fein TD in 2017.

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Speaking on RTÉ Morning Ireland this Monday morning, the Meath TD he declined the trip, "given the anti-democratic nature of Putin at the time."

He said he was approached by an Irish businesswoman who said she worked for a company that developed bilateral trade between Russia and Ireland, and offered included a chance to meet with Putin, and stays in five star hotels.

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

Deputy Tóibín also called on all political parties to conduct an audit of their members to see if any had been approached or had accepted similiar offers.

"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," he said in a statement released later this Monday morning.