Eoin Hayes #
Introduction #
Eoin Hayes is an Irish politician who was elected to Dáil Éireann in November 2024 as a first-time Social Democrats TD for the Dublin Bay South constituency. Weeks after taking his seat, he was suspended from the Social Democrats parliamentary party after it emerged that he had provided incorrect information to the media about when he sold shares in his former employer, the software company Palantir Technologies. Hayes sat in the Dáil as an Independent TD for nearly eight months before being readmitted to the party in July 2025 following what he called a full and unequivocal apology. In September 2025, he issued a further public apology after photographs surfaced of a Halloween costume he had worn as a university student in 2009, in which he used brown make-up to dress up as former US President Barack Obama.
Background Information #
Before entering national politics, Hayes worked for Palantir Technologies, a software company that, per RTÉ, holds a number of IT contracts with the Israeli and US militaries. He was elected to Dublin City Council before seeking a seat in the Dáil, and stood for the Social Democrats in Dublin Bay South at the November 2024 general election, winning the seat. According to RTÉ, Hayes sold his shares in Palantir for just under €200,000 one month after his election to the city council; in his own later statement he said the sale took place on 26 July 2024.
Hayes was asked during and after the 2024 election campaign about when he had divested from Palantir, and the answers he gave to media outlets proved to be incorrect, per RTÉ. The period in question overlapped with heightened public scrutiny in Ireland of companies holding Israeli defence-related contracts during the war in Gaza.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation #
On 10 December 2024, weeks after Hayes was elected, revelations emerged that he had provided incorrect information to the media about the sale of his Palantir shares. Per RTÉ, on 11 December Hayes spent 27 minutes at a Dáil plinth press conference not fully answering questions on the matter. Later that day, he confirmed that he had sold his shares for just under €200,000, one month after his election to Dublin City Council, rather than at the earlier point he had previously suggested. In the aftermath of these revelations, the Social Democrats suspended Hayes from its parliamentary party, and he subsequently took his seat in the Dáil as an Independent TD.
Public Reaction and Consequences #
The suspension removed Hayes from the Social Democrats’ parliamentary party for close to eight months during his first term as a TD. Per RTÉ, the party continued to count him as a party TD for procedural purposes, an issue which helped with Oireachtas committee appointment numbers, while he sat politically apart from the group. The affair drew sustained media scrutiny of Hayes’s explanations for the timing of the share sale and of his initial responses to questioning.
On 25 July 2025, the Social Democrats announced that Hayes had been readmitted. Party deputy leader Cian 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,” adding, “Eoin has a lot to offer as a Social Democrats TD and I look forward to working with him.” Hayes apologised, saying: “At the outset, I want to give a full and unequivocal apology for giving the incorrect information to the media about when I divested from Palantir.” He added that he should not have held the shares for as long as he did and that he had donated $51,000 to three humanitarian organisations active in Gaza, split between UNRWA, Unicef and Doctors Without Borders, a figure he said represented the uplift in the share price, less applicable taxes, from 7 October 2023 to the sale date. He concluded: “I know I have let people down and I am determined to work hard and earn back people’s trust.”
Current Status #
Hayes has been a member of the Social Democrats parliamentary party again since July 2025 and has sat with the party since his readmission. Per RTÉ, both of his apologies are on the public record: the July 2025 apology over the Palantir share-sale information and a September 2025 apology over his 2009 Halloween costume, for which he was informed that a news outlet had obtained photographs of him and intended to publish them. In that statement, Hayes said that as President of University College Cork Students Union in 2009 he wore brown make-up on his face and hands as part of a Barack Obama costume, that he did not understand how hurtful this was at the time, and that it was “completely inappropriate and a huge mistake”. A Social Democrats spokesperson told RTÉ News that “the Social Democrats abhor all forms of racism” and that “Deputy Hayes has acknowledged that what he did was wrong, offensive and hurtful. He has taken full responsibility for his actions and issued an unreserved apology.”
No further sanction against Hayes is reported in the available sources. Note on duration: RTÉ’s July 2025 report described the suspension as a “near eight-month” one, while its September 2025 report described it as a “seven-month suspension”; both characterisations are attributed here to the report in which they appear.
Impact on Their Career/Life #
The controversies shaped the opening period of Hayes’s first Dáil term. The Palantir revelations cost him his membership of the Social Democrats parliamentary party within weeks of his election, and he spent roughly eight months as an Independent TD, separated from the colleagues with whom he had been elected, before his readmission on a public apology and a reported $51,000 charitable donation. The September 2025 costume apology, issued hours before news publication of the photographs, arrived days before the party’s pre-Dáil think-in and leadership transition, adding a second reputational episode within a year of his election. Per RTÉ, the apology was accepted in party terms, with the Social Democrats confirming he had taken full responsibility, and Hayes remains a Social Democrats TD for Dublin Bay South.