As the scandal around Eoin Hayes continues into eternity, it seems as though Irish politicians are in a competition for the worst crisis management strategies. Mere weeks ago, Simon Harris seemingly indulged in every opportunity to use the Kanturk incident to tank his party’s electoral chances. This week, Eoin Hayes and the Social Democrats are creating scandals out of nearly nothing, distracting from the government coalition talks that should be the subject of their mud-throwing. Crisis management is supposed to minimise the downside for the object of the crisis. Evidently, Irish politics needs a refresher.
A Week of Crisis
To recap the scandals that caused the crisis:
News broke that Eoin Hayes profited off the sale of shares at Palantir – his former employer – which has multiple contracts with the Israel Defence Force. Hayes claimed that he divested before entering politics. He later admitted that he made the sale in July, one month after winning his election to Dublin City Council. The Social Democrats, which backed Hayes on everything from his candidacy to his statements without verifying anything, suspended him from the party. The crisis continued apace and Hayes admitted to receiving campaign donations over the legal limit and claimed he was in the process of refunding the margin. All in all, a pretty terrible – and avoidable – week.
Internal Failure
The Social Democrats, as a general rule, needs to improve its candidate vetting process. Only last week, it boasted about its candidates’ expertise on their issues. However, this is not the first candidate-related scandal this year. Ahead of the Local Elections in June, the party faced another crisis when it deselected a Jewish candidate, Orli Degani, ostensibly for ‘differing views’. The party selected Degani in July 2023 for an election in June 2024 and deselected her in May. If a candidate has ‘views’ so toxic to a party’s electoral chances, these should be filtered out before nominating a candidate. Similarly, a candidate with work history at a company blacklisted by the party should have had to answer some questions by the party about his past and continued relationship. It’s just common sense.
Dig into the story, not the hole
The Social Democrats aggravated this crisis, though, by continuing its unprofessional assumptions that all would be well. When Hayes made the statement about when he divested the shares, the party backed his statements without any sort of private interrogation. One might suggest the party take a leaf out of the book of Hayes’ doppelganger, Gript’s Ben Scallan. He regularly keeps asking questions until there are no more questions to ask.
In any case, the party grabbed a shovel and freely jumped into the hole Hayes was digging for himself. By Tuesday afternoon, its only option was to climb out of the hole and hope it might save some face. Suspension was the least worst option by this point. However, the party could have done more to emphasize the lying as the reason for the suspension in order to gain broader appeal for the decision. That being said, opposition to both the Jewish state and shareholder capitalism is perhaps a more authentic move for left-wing politicians.
Hayes created a crisis out of nothing
Despite the six-figure pre-tax profits and the leftover campaign funds, Eoin Hayes does not appear to have invested in crisis communications. In fairness, that level of foresight would have lended itself to avoiding the problems in the first place. If he were to employ the services of Birch Lea Strategies, however, here are some of the ideas we would discuss.
Thanks for hiring Birch Lea Strategies…
First, he needs to stop causing problems. This was barely a crisis to begin with. Hayes may have a secret stake in Paz Oil given the amount of fuel he is pouring on the fire. Lying – as it always is – was completely unnecessary. A swift confirmation of when he divested the shares would have simmered down the scandal in a single news cycle. Then, once he noticed scrutiny on his personal financial dealings, we would have run a full audit of any other improprieties and taken swift action.
He should have immediately returned any illegal donations. It’s less than two weeks after the election so it’s reasonable that it may have taken a while to return the extra cash to donors. The problem arises when the move is prompted by a scandal. If the transactions were initiated on Tuesday, Hayes could easily have pointed out this morning that the money was already returned. Being ‘in the process’ of returning the funds doesn’t fool anyone. Refunds can be issued at the click of a button on GoFundMe. He could even have done it on his phone while he was hiding behind Cian O’Callaghan at the press conference on Tuesday.
To effectively manage the crisis, we would explore why it is a scandal at all. Obviously, an extremely pro-Palestine party in an extremely pro-Palestine country should probably not have members invested in a company on the BDS blacklist. But most people would understand if he admitted he wanted to divest at the most profitable time. The SocDem base would have screamed a little but most Irish people would have shrugged it off and said, “well fair enough then” and forgotten about it long before the next election.
At this point, Hayes has done what he has done. He is on the trajectory to resign his seat in the Dáil before he takes it on Wednesday and ultimately go down in history as another failed, corrupt Irish politician. So he needs to switch gears.
Hayes has spent the last two days either apologizing or lying. He needs to put an end to the crisis. The more he retreats, the more the mob advances.
He should put out one final statement summarizing the essential facts, a specific apology for lying, and then focus on what he hopes to do as Dublin Bay South’s newest TD. The Social Democrats have a long manifesto that nobody read and the perennial government parties are negotiating yet another duopolistic government. Hayes needs to throw some Paz Oil on that fire. If he does, he just might be able to go to work next week.
