A Fianna Fail TD has called for gardai to investigate reports that Sinn Fein provided its members with fake IDs to pretend they were part of a polling company.
Sinn Fein also provided members with instructions on how to pose as researchers for a fake polling company, the Irish Market Research Agency, a report said.
Marc MacSharry said it amounted to “subversion of the public”.
The provision of fake IDs to prescribe what people say on behalf of a political party is not normal political behaviour and I think the gardai should be consulted on itMarc MacSharry, Fianna Fail
The Irish Independent also reported on Wednesday that an internal training manual included instructions to members on how to misrepresent themselves and pose as pollster when surveying householders.
Members would ask people for their opinions on election candidates and political issues.
Mr MacSharry, Fianna Fail TD for Sligo, said he was “shocked on one level but not surprised on another”.
“This amounts to basic subversion of the public,” he told Newstalk.
“The provision of fake IDs to prescribe what people say on behalf of a political party is not normal political behaviour and I think the gardai should be consulted on it.
“We are all used to in politics tackling people on one another’s polices, and certainly that’s not difficult on Sinn Fein’s Toytown economics than others’, but when we have proof over a 77-page manual, telling, training and encouraging personnel how to lie, providing them with fake documents, says a great deal about the organisation.
“It’s extremely worrying.”
Mr MacSharry said it needed gardai involvement.
“I would certainly like to hear their view,” he added.
“We have all come across people looking to illicit things from the public, we know that data is a commodity now and people are paying for it now.
“Anyone using fake ID to prescribe a dishonest outcome from people they are engaging with is not honest and not the sort of wholesome activity we expect from our establishment.
“I would amazed if the gardai did not have something to say abut this.”
A Sinn Fein spokesperson said: “All parties conduct private local opinion polling.
“The document referred to in the Irish Independent story is many years old.
“These days we generally use professional companies for polling services.
“Polling is completely different to canvassing.
“No private information or data is ever collected or stored; on Abu or anywhere else. It is entirely anonymous – that is the whole point of it.”
Earlier, the party’s housing spokesman Eoin O Broin said that there was nothing “untoward or deceptive” about the practice.