Eoin Hayes’ suspension from Soc Dems extended after national executive review

By Cate McCurry, PA

Eoin Hayes’ suspension from the Social Democrats is to be extended after a review carried out by the party’s national executive, the acting leader has said.

Cian O’Callaghan said Mr Hayes had not been kicked out of the party and indicated that the TD for Dublin Bay South could be welcomed back at a later stage.

Mr Hayes was suspended by the parliamentary party in December over his shares in a company linked to the Israeli military.

He had originally told the media and his party colleagues that he divested shares in his former employer, Palantir Technologies, prior to being elected to Dublin City Council in June.

But he later revealed that he sold the shares in July – after taking office – for a pre-tax figure of €199,000. The company supplies technology to Israel’s military.

On Tuesday, Mr O’Callaghan, acting leader of the Social Democrats, said that following a review by the national executive, they had made a decision to “endorse” the indefinite suspension of Mr Hayes.

“It also made a number of recommendations about improving our candidate selection processes,” Mr O’Callaghan added.

“When we made a decision back in December to suspend his membership from the parliamentary party, he wasn’t a Social Democrat TD from that period onwards. The whip has been suspended from him indefinitely since December.”

Asked whether Mr Hayes could rejoin the parliamentary party at a later date, Mr O’Callaghan said: “That certainly could be considered at a later date.

“I don’t have a timeline on that.”

Mr O’Callaghan rejected suggestions that Mr Hayes had been kicked out of the party.

He also said that Mr Hayes’ suspension was the same as “any other parliamentary party”, adding that it was not time bound.

“They [national executive] carried out their review, their decision was to endorse the parliamentary party’s decision, so there’s no change from the situation that there was yesterday and the day before,” he said.

He also said the party could consider welcoming him back, adding that his suspension could be “reconsidered” at a later date.

The party has refused to publish the review, saying it was an internal matter.

“What was clear from the review is that he did provide some information to the party regarding the shareholdings, but it wasn’t complete information,” Mr O’Callaghan said.

“What wasn’t provided, for example, at any stage, up until after or until the day of the suspension, was, for example, the value of the shareholding, the size of the shareholding, those kind of details.

“The decision of the parliamentary secretary that we took back in December was that this was a very serious issue for us. We didn’t think it was acceptable.

“We did find that we need to strengthen our selection processes. So for example, we need to get more detailed information from all potential candidates and to be asking more robust questions as well during those selection processes.”