Recently elected Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes has been suspended from the party with “immediate effect”.
This comes following the revelation that he sold his shares in a US software company that supplies the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) a month after he was elected as a councillor last June.
His suspension was announced in a statement from party deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan on Tuesday evening.
“At a press conference today, Eoin Hayes stated he had sold shares in Palantir before he entered politics. This was not true. Eoin was first elected to Dublin City Council in June 2024 and the shares were sold in July 2024,” the statement said.
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“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.”
In a statement on Tuesday night, Mr Hayes said he intends to sit as an Independent TD once the Dáil resumes on December 18th.
He said that while he “disposed of the shares in July 2024″, he had “sought to do much earlier but administrative barriers delayed the process”.
Mr Hayes issued an earlier statement apologising for incorrect information he gave at the press conference about his shareholding.
The Dublin Bay South TD told the media he sold the shares in Palantir before he entered politics, but declined to say when exactly he sold them and how much for.
He, in fact, sold the shares a month after he was elected a councillor last June for Kimmage-Rathmines on Dublin City Council.
When he was elected to the council he signed a declaration of assets in which he stated: “I completely divested from all holdings within the last 12 months”. The document is dated June 26th, 2024, before Mr Hayes sold his shares.
The party earlier said the date was an “unfortunate typo” as Mr Hayes did not send in the form until July 26th, after he had sold the shares.
In his statement, Mr Hayes reiterated that he “mistyped the date on the form”.
Mr Hayes had said in his previous statement earlier in the day: “I had 7,000 shares in the company, all of which dated from my employment nearly a decade ago, and sold them in July 2024 for a pretax figure of €199,000.
“Earlier today, during a press conference, I stated I had sold the shares before I entered politics. This was not true. It was a month after I was first elected. I unreservedly apologise for providing incorrect information and I am now correcting the record.”
Palantir, cofounded by venture capitalist Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of internet payments company PayPal, and with investment from the CIA, uses data analysis to provide AI capabilities to the IDF and to US agencies, including the ability to identify targets for bombing.
Palantir shares were worth between $17 and $45 in 2021, $16.95 in January this year when Mr Hayes said he should have sold them and were $28.07 by July. The shares are worth $74.36 today.
In his earlier statement Mr Hayes said he worked “in internal operations, in areas like HR and IT, when I lived in the United States. I had absolutely no role in anything related to any military contracts, for the Israeli military or anyone else”.
He said that “as part of my salary package, I was provided with shares. The conditions attaching to those shares meant I was unable to sell them 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.”
The software consultant, who ran a company advising small tech firms and start-ups on their finances, worked for Palantir from 2015 to 2017 and was based in New York.
Mr Hayes said he divested the shares entirely “as soon as Palantir made very vocal support” their for the IDF.
The Social Democrats have strongly supported Palestinians in Gaza and trenchantly criticised the Government over its response to the war in Gaza and the failure pass the Occupied Territories Bill on banning trade from illegally occupied areas of Palestine.
Defending Mr Hayes earlier on Tuesday, Cian O’Callaghan, the party’s deputy leader, earlier told reporters that the shares were “fully divested” by Mr Hayes before he “entered politics”.
Mr Hayes said there had been “no secrecy” about his shareholding.
He insisted that “the only reason you know about the shares is because I was transparent about them and I made them in those ethics declarations.
“I’ve been fully transparent and on top of that I’ve been fully supportive of the party’s position on Gaza and on Israel and on the Occupied Territories Bill,” he said.
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