A REVIEW UNDERTAKEN by the national executive of the Social Democrats has endorsed the decision to suspend TD Eoin Hayes “indefinitely” from the party.

On 10 December, the newly-elected Hayes was suspended with immediate effect from the parliamentary party after it emerged that he had erroneously declared that he had divested his shares in controversial firm Palantir “within the last twelve months”.

Palantir Technologies is a secretive US company co-founded by billionaire Peter Thiel that specialises in national security and law enforcement.

The firm provides militaries, including the Israeli Defence Forces, with artificial intelligence models used in battlegrounds to help identify targets.

Its software has been used by Israel to identify targets in Gaza.  

Hayes worked for the firm from 2015 to 2017.

He made the declaration when completing a declaration of assets, dated ‘June 2024′, after being elected as a councillor last year.

However, Hayes had not divested until July, one month after being elected – when he had actually submitted the declaration, which was confirmed to have been accidentally misdated.

Following the emergence of questions surrounding Hayes’ divestment, deputy party leader Cian O’Callaghan suspended him from the Social Democrats pending a review from the party’s National Executive.

Social Democrats has decided to continue with the indefinite suspension of TD Eoin Hayes, meaning he is still not a member of the parliamentary party, won’t sit with the group and doesn’t have speaking rights with them. Theoretically, he could come back in the fold down the line pic.twitter.com/k06t7Ud7L3

— Christina Finn (@christinafinn8) February 11, 2025

Speaking today, O’Callaghan said that review by the national executive has been completed.

“The national executive decided at their meeting to endorse the decision of the parliamentary party to indefinitely suspend Eoin Hayes,” said O’Callaghan.

When pressed on the issue O’Callaghan clarified that the “indefinite suspension” from the party is not an expulsion from the party, which means there is a path back for the TD. 

He added that Hayes is not a member of the parliamentary party, he won’t sit with the group and doesn’t have speaking rights with them. 

O’Callaghan added that the party has “also made a number of recommendations about improving our candidate selection process”.