Government ministers visit Kildare South to launch campaigns of candidates

The general election campaigns of Fine Gael candidates Fiona McLoughlin Healy and sitting TD Martin Heydon have been officially launched.

The launch in the Kildare House Hotel in Kildare Town at the weekend and attended by over 200 supporters presided over by Minister for Foreign Affairs, Charlie Flanagan.

McLoughlin Healy reminded the audience of how far the country has come in the last five years under the Coalition led by Taoiseach Enda Kenny.

She added: “I want to see a nationwide jobs recovery, as a member of the Education and Training Boards, I am calling for a new focus on the apprenticeship sector.

"I want to see those towns and communities around county and the country that have to date, benefited less from the recovery be prioritised as locations for a newly invigorated world class apprenticeship sector capable of increasing our competitiveness as a country while spreading the recovery nationwide."

Minister for Justice and Newbridge native Frances Fitzgerald visited Fiona McLoughlin Healy’s constituency office in Newbridge.

Minister Fitzgerald met with local community groups who had assembled in Fiona’s office before taking to the streets to meet local business owners and to canvas.

McLoughlin Healy raised the issue of the low ratio of gardai per capita in Kildare and the minister said she has raised this issue with the Garda Commissioner.