Newly elected Dublin Bay South TD Eoin Hayes has been suspended from the Social Democrats parliamentary party with immediate effect.
It comes after he confirmed that he sold his shares in software company Palantir for just under €200,000, one month after he was elected to Dublin City Council.
Deputy Hayes confirmed that he will take his “seat as an independent” when the Dáil resumes on 18 December.
Social Democrats deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan said that Mr Hayes was suspended from the parliamentary party because an explanation that he put forward at a news conference at Leinster House this morning about when he sold shares in Palantir “was not true”.
“At a press conference today, Eoin Hayes stated he had sold shares in Palantir before he entered politics,” Mr O’Callaghan said.
“This was not true.
“Eoin was first elected to Dublin City Council in June 2024 and the shares were sold in July 2024.
“This is a serious matter. It is imperative that the media, who hold politicians to account on behalf of the public, can rely on the information they receive from elected representatives.
“For that reason, Eoin Hayes has been suspended from the Social Democrats parliamentary party with immediate effect.”
We need your consent to load this comcast-player contentWe use comcast-player to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity. Please review their details and accept them to load the content.Manage Preferences
Mr Hayes faced questions over his divestment of shares in the company which supplies artificial intelligence tools to the Israeli military.
In a statement this afternoon, he said he received 7,000 shares as part of his employment package with the company.
Mr Hayes sold them in July this year for a pre-tax figure of €199,000.
He won the final seat in the Dublin Bay South constituency just ten days ago in what was a major gain for the party
Earlier today, during a media conference, Mr Hayes had said he had disposed of the shares before he entered electoral politics.
In his statement he said: “I unreservedly apologise for providing incorrect information and I am now correcting the record.”
Mr Hayes also said that he worked for Palantir between 2015 and 2017 in internal operations, in areas like HR and IT, when he lived in the United States.
He had absolutely no role, he said, in anything related to any military contracts, for the Israeli military or anyone else.
He also said that he was not allowed to sell the shares until 2021, six months after the company had gone public.
“Throughout the course of the past year, Palantir’s support for the Israeli military has markedly increased. In January, the company signed a new strategic partnership with the Israeli Defence Ministry. I should have sold my shares then and I deeply regret that I did not.”
In a further statement this evening, Mr Hayes said that although he would take his seat as an independent when the Dáil resumes tomorrow week, he “hopes to earn back the trust of the Social Democrats”.
“I remain fully committed to the principles and ideals that the Social Democrats stand for, and that I sought to communicate to the electorate during the recent election period,” Mr Hayes said.
“That said, I fully appreciate the need for – and accept – the decision which was taken today.
Mr Hayes said he “made a mistake” that “wasn’t intentional”.
He apologised for the situation saying “this will not happen again”.
‘Quite astounding’ – Sinn Féin
Matt Carthy of Sinn Féin has described it as an incredibly serious matter and “quite astounding” and called on Mr Hayes to resign.
He said however that the Social Democrats had acted swiftly.
He added that had this information been in the public domain two weeks ago, he believed Mr Hayes would not be a TD today and that Chris Andrews (of Sinn Féin) would be.
Additional reporting Fiachra Ó Cionnaith
