Social Democrat TD apologises for misleading the public

Sinn Fein want him to resign as a TD.

The underlying issue re Palantienis not really in point. He’s shown himself willing to lie on paper (never asserted a mistake or come clean), to get others to back him up and then express it publicly in front of the media in the face of repeated questioning. He doesn’t have the ethics needed for Soc Dems.

The title should read "Soc Dem TD apologies cos he was caught".

He has the ethics, being overly pure is a problem too, and that's going to cause the Soc Dems a lot of problems.

He was more concerned about impressing the other holy joes than just saying he had the shares and so what.

If they are that pure they'll force out half the members and voters

Kinda clear from his obfuscation and lies that he knew there was need to cover up, no?

No, they just need to be honest.

The discrepancy is relatively small since he clearly intended to sell those shares and did so soon after when he made the declaration. It's a technicality at most and the core of what he said was true even if the details weren't precise, he did commit to selling his shares once he entered political life it just took him a couple of weeks to get around to selling them.

Rookie mistakes, but then he is an actual rookie.

The thing that will leave lasting concern with members and voters is the perception of his indifference towards the actions of Israel in the past year. He seemingly was happy to profit off their actions in that time so it's imperative he clarifies why this wasn't morally troubling for him and explains his views on the current Israeli regime in general.

Lying about owning €200,000 of assets on official government declaration forms is not a "technicality at most".

What do you think would happen to someone who declined to tell Revenue about €200,000 of assets? Or who was on welfare and declined to tell them about €200,000 of assets?

That, and his then going out in front of the media and very obviously and deliberately lying repeatedly to the nation about when he sold them, are extremely corrupt behaviour from a TD. They'd be bad from a TD of any party, but especially so from a party like the SocDems that is all about clean politics and being different from the dirty politics of the past.

That and him going on marches for the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement, and talking about being very pro-Gaza, while literally holding hundreds of thousands of euros worth of shares in one of the most involved in the Israeli defense forces companies possible, is extremely shady behaviour. How can he have been calling for others to divest when he didn't himself? His word obviously means nothing - hes happy to lie, repeatedly, to get ahead.

If this had come to light before the election its unlikely he would have won his seat - he only got in on the last count. So realistically he should resign and a by election should be had to fill his seat. He can run again now that the public knows this about him and see how he does.

There was no crime he just owned shares from years ago That company has some business with Israel, that's all.

They'll be looking to close Intel next.

The cover up is an issue

Are you trying to mendaciously distract from the actual point at issue. He received the shares while working for the company prior to it going public. He left while it was still a private company, he continued to hold the shares after it went public in 2021 and the lockup ended. If he was smart he’d still be holding them today. It’s the lying and then essentially forcing his new colleagues to front up his lies that is unacceptable. I can’t see how any of them would be willing to serve with him. The lying on the form is bad enough but to taint them all and make them look like goms for believing him and defending him is fairly inexcusable.

That’s why those ethics declarations need to be made statutory declarations so that falsely swearing them would be an offence - and I apply that to all the other politicians who have “failed” to declare asssets. It’s not a technicality, it was a carefully chosen lie. Which he doubled down on and embroiled his colleagues in. He doesn’t show the judgement which the Soc Dems might expect, more of a grubby FFer.

They’ll try to whip it up into one as they can portray Andrews as a long time Gaza agitator with involvement in the ship etc. The truth of course is that he is a grifter who cyber bullied peoples and only upped sticks from FF to SF when he was found out. It’s actually surprising that they took him and that they’ve kept him. Lynn Boylan would have taken that seat easily.

The word thinking is doing heavy lifting there.

He made an extra €9800 between the end of June and the end of July when he sold them.