SUSPENDED SOCIAL DEMOCRATS TD Eoin Hayes has called for the Occupied Territories Bill to be enacted, claiming he is the only TD in this Dáil who made it a “red line” issue in last year’s general election. 

In a statement released this afternoon, the Dublin Bay South TD said he is “deeply concerned” that the “do-nothing” Government has not yet passed the Occupied Territories Bill and that it has had long enough to tease out any legal issues with the legislation.

Today’s statement from Hayes said that he believes “he is the only member of the 34th Dáil to have made the Bill a red-line issue prior to the General Election”.

• Explainer: Why was newly elected Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes suspended just days into the job?

He continued: “It is incumbent upon all of us to do what we can to challenge injustice wherever we see it.

“The Occupied Territories Bill as written by Senator Frances Black and others is one of the best steps we can take to challenge the injustice and violence being wrought against the Palestinian people in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and in refugee and asylum populations across the world.”

Hayes was suspended from the Social Democrats in December last year, less than two weeks after becoming a TD, after he misled reporters and party leadership in relation to shares he held in a software firm that supplies technology to the Israeli Defence Forces.

The firm, Palantir, 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.

On the day of his suspension, Hayes was repeatedly asked by reporters during a press conference at Leinster House when he sold his shares in the company and how much he sold them for. He repeatedly refused to give an answer on when exactly he sold them or for how much.

Instead, when continuously pushed on the matter, Hayes told reporters that he sold the shares before he entered politics.

“As soon as I became aware that Israel had very close relationships with that company I divested,” Hayes told reporters.

However, in a statement sent by the Social Democrats later that day, Hayes clarified that what he told reporters that morning was “not true”. 

He went on to apologise and said that he actually sold his shares a month after he was elected as a councillor.

He also revealed that he sold the shares for a pre-tax figure of €199,000. 

In February of this year, a review carried out by the national executive of the Social Democrats endorsed the decision to suspend Hayes “indefinitely” from the parliamentary party.

Earlier this month, despite Hayes identifying himself as an “Independent” TD following his suspension, the party claimed he was still a Social Democrats TD for the purpose of Oireachtas Committees. 

Asked today if there is any further update on his status as a TD in the party, a spokesperson for the Social Democrats said there is not. 

The spokesperson said: “The Social Democrats have consistently advocated for the enactment of the Occupied Territories Bill and call on the government to do so as a matter of urgency.”