MacSharry calls for Garda probe into Sinn Féin research methods

The Fianna Fáil TD claims they have proof of the opposition party "telling, encouraging and training personnel on how to lie".

Marc MacSharry: "In politics, we're used to tackling people on one another's policies, and certainly that's not difficult when it comes to Sinn Féin's Toytown economic policies." File photo: Gareth Chaney/Collins

Marc MacSharry says the "gardaí should be consulted" over reports that Sinn Féin told members to pretend to be a fake research company to carry out polling.

Reports released in the media this morning state that an internal training manual gave activists "detailed instructions" on how to pose as researchers working for a polling company to question voters.

The 77-page document set out how Sinn Féin members should ask voters about their intentions under the guise of the “Irish Market Research Agency” (IMRA), which does not exist.

Mr MacSharry said this was not "normal political behaviour, and I think that the Gardaí should be consulted, quite frankly".

"In politics, we're used to tackling people on one another's policies, and certainly that's not difficult when it comes to Sinn Féin's Toytown economic policies, among others. 

But I mean I think when we have proof now of a 77-page manual, telling, encouraging and training personnel on how to lie, providing them with fake official documents or would-be official documents, I think says a great deal about the organisation.

Mr MacSharry added he found it "extremely worrying, and I don't know anybody involved in politics, up to now, who would have engaged in such subversion, in the modern democratic world."

The Sligo Fianna Fáil representative said he couldn't see how it wouldn't constitute Garda involvement.

"I'd certainly like to hear their view, we all have come across people looking to elicit things from the public, we know that data is a commodity now that people are prepared to pay money for," he said.

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"And I think that, quite frankly, anybody using fake identification to prescribe a dishonest outcome from the people who they are engaging with, i.e. the public, is not honest.

"It is not the sort of wholesome activity that we expect from our establishment."

In response to the Independent story, a Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “All parties conduct private local opinion polling. The document you are referring to is many years old and these days we generally use professional companies for this service.” Sinn Féin said the information it collected from the opinion poll was anonymous and not entered into the party’s controversial voter database, the Abú system.