The Social Democrats have insisted tonight that it has always been the case that committee positions are allocated proportionately based on the results of the general election.
The party earlier today wrote to the Clerk of the Dáil to inform to him that it "indefinitely suspended" TD Eoin Hayes remained a Social Democrat deputy.
This allowed the party to gain a second Oireachtas Committee Chairperson position even though the Dublin Bay South TD has been officially listed on the Oireachtas website as an Independent TD since December.
He was indefinitely suspended by the party after he confirmed in December that he had not sold shares in the company Palantir, which supplies artificial intelligence tools to the Israeli military, until one month after he was elected to Dublin City Council.
This was at odds with a previous explanation he had given.
In a statement tonight the party said it was "important to reflect the mandate that the Social Democrats received at the election".
"The decision doesn't just have an impact on the number of chairperson positions - it also impacts the choice of committees available to the party and the number of committee positions.
"The fact is that 11 Social Democrats TD were elected in November. Internal disciplinary measures have been taken against one of those TDs, Eoin Hayes. That should not, and did not, have an impact on the allocation of committee places."
The exact breakdown of committee chairs for the 28 Oireachtas committees will be clear tomorrow but it looks like the Government side will be allocated 15 positions, Sinn Féin seven, Labour and the Social Democrats will both get two while the two opposition Dáil Technical Groups will get one each.
