#GE2020: Heydon stands on his local work for re-election

Canvassing in Kilcullen tonight, Deputy Martin Heydon said backbenchers are at the mercy of what happens in national politics but he is relying on his personal constituency work over the last two terms to be re-elected, writes Brian Byrne.

He also said that with 11 candidates competing for three seats in Kildare South, it makes it quite difficult, especially with the extension of the constituency boundaries. “It makes the transfers very difficult, and everybody will be trying to get as many first preferences as they can.”

On the doorstep he is getting feedback on both local and national challenges people are facing, such as childcare and other problems, in 'robust debate', and he says his sense is that a lot of people haven’t yet made up their minds. “The vote is still there to be won."

The candidate says people are aware at a local level that the extra gardai and the approved extension of the Cross and Passion College take resources, ‘and that we do need to keep the economy going to pay for those resources’. “These are the kind of things that I hope to continue to work on if re-elected.”

At a national level, with a dropping Fine Gael preference in the latest opinion poll and the Sinn Fein support rising that it is a ‘tricky’ situation.

“All elections are tricky. We did get off to a bad start with that poll, but we would like to see us in next week's poll doing better than we did last weekend.”

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