{"id":626204,"date":"2026-09-16T07:50:27","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:50:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626204\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T07:50:27","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T07:50:27","slug":"absence-of-eoin-hayes-throws-a-spanner-in-the-works-at-social-democrats-think-in-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/626204\/","title":{"rendered":"Absence of Eoin Hayes throws a spanner in the works at Social Democrats think-in \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Where was Social Democrats<\/a> TD Eoin Hayes<\/a>? <\/p>\n

This was one of several questions about the Dublin Bay South TD hurled at deputy leader Cian O\u2019Callaghan<\/a> at a press conference during the party\u2019s think-in on Tuesday in Dublin.<\/p>\n

Hayes was not the only party TD or Senator who wasn\u2019t around to take questions from the media. But unlike the others, the meeting was taking place in the heart of his constituency. He had also been the subject of a fresh controversy.<\/p>\n

This focus put a spanner in the works of the Social Democrats\u2019 efforts to publicise all of the thinking they were doing before the D\u00e1il returns on Wednesday. <\/p>\n

The party wanted to highlight what O\u2019Callaghan described as \u201cenergy and momentum\u201d \u2013 the Dublin Central byelection win<\/a>, strong poll showings \u2013 in contrast to the \u201cstale\u201d Government parties. <\/p>\n

Wicklow TD Jennifer Whitmore<\/a> outlined a proposed response to the fuel crisis, including a windfall tax on energy companies that would raise up to \u20ac350 million, \u20ac400 of electricity credits for lower income households, and more support for the roll-out of solar power. <\/p>\n

But the reporters kept asking about Hayes.<\/p>\n

The Ditch website last week reported that Hayes had posted on a recruitment website about co-leading a team that was \u201cexecuting a 40 per cent reduction in headcount\u201d at tech company Wayflyer<\/a>. The company announced in late 2022 that it was cutting 200 jobs<\/a> from its global workforce, including up to 70 in Dublin. The report highlighted how Hayes wrote an opinion piece in The Irish Times in August about the plight of tech workers facing lay-offs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

O\u2019Callaghan responded to a question on the issue, saying losing a job is \u201cvery traumatic\u201d and \u201cwe have huge empathy\u201d with anyone in that situation. <\/p>\n

\"LastLast year\u2019s Social Democrats think-in was overshadowed by a different storm surrounding Eoin Hayes. Photograph: Stephen Collins\/Collins Photos <\/p>\n

He said Hayes had clarified that in his role at Wayflyer, he \u201cwasn\u2019t involved in the decision-making process around who was laid off\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked about Hayes being absent from the press conference, and if he was hiding, O\u2019Callaghan replied: \u201cHe\u2019s not. He will be along later. We don\u2019t have the full parliamentary party here yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Indeed, there were a number of people missing, not least party leader Holly Cairns<\/a>. She is in the third trimester of her second pregnancy and medical advice meant she did not attend<\/a>. O\u2019Callaghan said she hopes, pending medical advice, to be back in the D\u00e1il in the coming weeks.<\/p>\n

In response to further questions, O\u2019Callaghan said Hayes would \u201ccertainly\u201d be running for the Social Democrats in the next general election and would be staying on as spokesman on social protection.<\/p>\n

It was all very reminiscent of last year\u2019s think-in, which was overshadowed by a different storm surrounding Hayes. He apologised on the eve of that gathering for a \u201cblackface\u201d incident 16 years before. He had dressed up as former US president Barack Obama<\/a> for a Halloween party.<\/p>\n

He had been readmitted to the Social Democrats only that summer after being suspended from the parliamentary party in December 2024 when it emerged he had issued misleading information<\/a> about the sale of his shares in Palantir<\/a>, a supplier to the Israeli military. Hayes has since donated more than \u20ac43,000 to aid organisations working in Gaza<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Garda\u00ed unlikely to get pursuit training in significant numbers until 2028, TDs toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Hayes issued a statement on Tuesday in response to the story in The Ditch and his absence from the press conference. <\/p>\n

He said his role at Wayflyer was \u201cto model the financial impact of the decisions of the management team and the board\u201d, that he was not on the board or the senior management team, and \u201cdid not make any decisions about who would be let go or how many people\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn fact, I also lost my job at Wayflyer at that time,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely understand the trauma of losing a job, and set out in politics to try and build an economy that prevents or ameliorates these kinds of eventualities.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said he was \u201camong five members of the parliamentary party\u201d not present at the press conference, \u201cbut everyone \u2013 except Holly \u2013 did attend the think-in\u201d. He did not answer a question on why he was absent from the media opportunity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Where was Social Democrats TD Eoin Hayes? This was one of several questions about the Dublin Bay South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":626205,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5456,128330,20207,3409,21010,61,60,100080,43,4073,1419,265846],"class_list":["post-626204","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-barack-obama","tag-cian-ocallaghan","tag-eoin-hayes","tag-gaza-strip","tag-holly-cairns","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-jennifer-whitmore","tag-news","tag-palantir","tag-social-democrats","tag-wayflyer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626204","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=626204"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/626204\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/626205"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=626204"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=626204"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=626204"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}