Soc Dems at war over Hayes readmission

The final Friday evening in July was chosen as the time for the Social Democrats to announce that controversial TD Eoin Hayes was readmitted into the party.

Dropping the news on a Friday evening in July, just hours after the latest figures from the Department of Housing revealed another record high set of figures for Dublin and Ireland, made the Soc Dems’ intent clear; drop the news when everyone was signed off for the weekend and pray it has been forgotten about by Monday.

Announcing the decision, O’Callaghan said, “Eoin has been suspended from the parliamentary party for nearly eight months, and I believe he should be given a second chance.”

“Eoin has a lot to offer as a Social Democrats TD and I look forward to working with him.”

For his part, Hayes said, “I want to give a full and unequivocal apology for giving the incorrect information to the media about when I divested from Palantir; I also want to be clear that I should not have held the shares for as long as I did.”

“For that reason, I have donated $51,000 to three humanitarian organisations active in Gaza – split between UNRWA, UNICEF and Doctors Without Borders. This figure represents the uplift in share price, less applicable taxes, from October 7 2023, to July 26 2024, when I sold the shares.

“I know I have let people down, and I am determined to work hard and earn back people’s trust.”

Hayes has sat as an independent since his election to the Dáil, but was counted as a Social Democrats TD for the purposes of Oireachtas committee chair delegations.

The planned “drop it on a Friday, pray it’s forgotten about by Monday” plan from the political communications handbook hasn’t quite panned out that way the Soc Dems thought it would.

The decision, made by O’Callaghan, has resulted in internal discomfort within the party and accusations from other parties that the Social Democrats are no different from the parties they claim to oppose.

Hayes’ readmission has caused ructions within the party; O’Callaghan’s assistant, Martha Ni Riada, confirmed their resignation from the party and from their position as O’Callaghan’s assistant in his Dublin Bay North office.

NÍ Riada was elected to the party’s National Executive in 2024, with the National Executive notably voting to bump Hayes’ suspension up to “indefinite” in February, a decision which was backed by O’Callaghan at the time.

In a statement, Ní Riada said that Hayes “should not have been given a second chance as a public representative.”

“To continue to profit from a company which supplies the IDF with AI-driven targeting systems that facilitate mass murder in Palestine is morally repugnant, and flies in the face of everything the Social Democrats stand for.”

Ní Riada’s resignation was followed by Galway councillor and general election candidate Eibhlín Seoighthe resigning from the party (with no indication from either the councillor or the party itself about what caused the resignation) with Limerick councillor and fellow general election candidate Elisa O’Donovan saying that “trust in the party has been eroded” as a result of Hayes’ re-entry. 

Síle Ní Dhubhghaill, who ran for the party in Dundrum in last year’s local elections, has also resigned from the party as a result of the affair.

Ní Dhubhghaill previously served as party chairperson from 2021 until 2024.

Dublin Rathdown TD Sineád Gibney has reportedly expressed discomfort over the Hayes saga; as recently as May, Gibney said that the party was “right” to suspend Hayes.

Hayes’ general election victory in Dublin Bay South, which now comes with an asterisk, was impressive from a purely numerical standpoint; the party massively benefited from the Green vote collapsing from 22.4% in 2020 to 8.2% in 2024, Chris Andrews’ share of the vote dropping from 16.1% to 12.2%, and this is the important part, Hayes receiving more transfers from People Before Profit than any other party.

In the heel of the reel, it emerged that Hayes was able to leapfrog Andrews to the final seat after receiving 659 of People Before Profits candidate Brigid Purcell’s 1413’s preferences.

Considering Hayes’ margin of victory was 721 votes, it is fair to say that Hayes would not have been elected without transfers from People Before Profit.

Since the general election, the Soc Dems have worked hard to work with the other parties of the left where possible (notably as part of the “Combined Opposition” in the Dáil and more recently, being the first party to back left-wing independent Catherine Connolly for the Áras, taking the Central Bank to court over the issue of Israeli war bonds), but People Before Profit have sharply criticised Hayes’ readmission.

In a statement, the party said, “the decision to now quietly bring Hayes back into the fold sends a clear message: ethical standards, public trust and Palestinian solidarity are less of a priority than seats in the Dáil and points in opinion polls. “

“This is not just a political scandal, it is a direct contradiction of the values the Social Democrats claim to stand for. Since their foundation ten years ago, they have positioned themselves as the party of integrity and higher standards in public life, claiming to be an alternative to the corruption and cynicism of Fianna Fáil and Fine Gael”

“For many voters and members, that commitment to honesty and transparency has been central to their appeal. The handling of the Hayes affair will come as a real disappointment to many of those supporters, and rightly so.”

“Everything about this is reminiscent of the politics that governed this state for a hundred years, say one thing at elections, do the opposite when elected. Stand with the mass movement in solidarity with Palestine during an election, profit from the genocide of Palestinians,” the statement read.

People Before Profit councillor Conor Reddy, who led Trinity College’s successful Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, said that “the public was misled” by Hayes.

“I think a lot of people who voted for Social Democrats, precisely because they thought they were different, more principled, more honest, will be deeply uncomfortable with how this has been handled.”

“Palestine solidarity is not a fashion accessory for election season. It is a test of political integrity, and the Social Democrats have failed that test in this case,” the Dublin City council member said.

Never missing a chance to get a tackle in on their breakaway contemporaries, Labour Youth criticised the decision.

“For any representative of the left, profiting from an entity that enables such suffering constitutes a grave ethical failure,” a statement from Labour Youth read.

“Palantir’s activities were reprehensible long before October 7, 2023, and this context cannot be ignored,” they said.

The organisation said, “accountability must mean more than a temporary non-suspension. For the Irish left, there must be clear ethical red lines. There can be no room for profiting from war, oppression, or state violence.” 

The Social Democrats turned 10 in July; the party was notably formed by former Labour TD Róisín Shortall and independents Catherine Murphy and Stephen Donnelly, with the party securing a large number of former Labour councillors early on in the party’s life, including O’Callaghan.

The key figures in the Social Democrats all come from various shades of the left; O’Callaghan was a former Labour councillor who quit the party over austerity, as did party co-founder Róisín Shortall, party housing spokesperson Rory Hearne was previously a general election candidate for People Before Profit, and Gary Gannon was mentored by left-wing independent Tony Gregory.

The Dáil may now be on summer recess, but the attempt to release the story into the wild on a quiet Friday evening in July with the hope of having it burn out over the weekend has backfired and now threatens to become the story in the absence of weekly Dáil proceedings.