Green Party confirms members engaged in pollster tactic ‘over a decade ago’
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Members of The Green Party engaged in posing as pollsters ‘over a decade ago’ the party confirmed on Thursday morning.
The situation surrounding political party members posing as pollsters began on Wednesday with the revelation that Sinn Fein had engaged in the practice.
In this instance, it was reported that members of the party used fake badges and worked under the name of a polling company that doesn’t exist.
Although there was an initial backlash against Sinn Fein for its response to the revelation, it soon became clear that other political parties engaged in similar practices.
Tanaiste Leo Varadkar said that Fine Gael had engaged in similar tactics, as did Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Coveney.
Taoiseach and Fianna Fail leader Micheal Martin agreed that it was wrong for his party to use the tactic up until it ceased in 2007.
He admitted that he didn’t know whether the practice broke any laws while it was in operation.
The Green Party said it asked within its ranks whether any members had engaged posing as pollsters and although the initial answer appeared to have been ‘no’, the party has since changed its tune.
It said in a statement on Thursday: ‘When we initially asked around internally yesterday it appeared that no-one in the party had ever engaged in using volunteers to carry out polling using a false company name.
‘However, it later emerged that there may have been some isolated incidences of this taking place in some constituencies over a decade ago.’
It is expected that all parties involved will be contacted by the Data Protection Commissioner following the admissions.