Social Democrats’ support for Palestinians and call for sanctions on Israel undermined by Eoin Hayes’s shareholding in company involved with Israel Defense Forces
Newly elected TD Eoin Hayes faced rigorous questioning during a media opportunity with deputy leader Cian O’Callaghan and Gary Gannon. Photograph: Nick Bradshaw
He returned to Ireland in 2018 and started a consultancy firm, Cantillon Labs, advising small businesses and start-ups, mainly software and technology companies, on their finances. However, a story in the Irish Daily Mail last week about his past employment, and shareholding in a software company, sparked controversy.Between 2015 and 2017, when based in New York, Hayes worked for Palantir Technologies, a data firm cofounded by billionaire Peter Thiel with investment from the CIA. The company built programmes to mine data including social media posts, phone and internet records, providing companies and governments with controversial surveillance technology.
Eoin Hayes: 'I should have sold my shares then and I deeply regret that I did not.' Photograph: Nick Bradshaw “As part of my salary package, I was provided with shares. The conditions attaching to those shares meant I was unable to sell them until 2021, six months after the company had gone public. An hour later, in another statement, O’Callaghan, who had defended Hayes at the press conference, said Hayes’s initial explanation about selling the shares before entering politics “was not true”.
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