We need new politics based on transparency and accountability - Cllr

Cllr Fiona McLoughlin Healy is an Independent candidate who has lived up to her tagline

of ‘Courage, Conviction, Community’ during the course of her first five years as an elected

representative. 

During her campaign for LE14, Fiona promised a new type of local politics based on

principles of transparency and accountability. 

    ‘I have worked hard to honour that commitment to my constituents. And After five years

as an elected representative I believe, more than ever before, that good governance is key

to ensuring value for money, effectiveness and fairness in the distribution of public monies.

It is an absolute necessity whether of Kildare County Council,  the Education and Training

sector,  the FAI, or the National Children’s Hospital’ 

These principles have informed her work as a councillor. An example of this has been her

role on the Board of the Kildare Wicklow Education and Training Board (KWETB) an

organisation with a budget of €135 million in 2018, 22 schools across Kildare and Wicklow,

29,000 students and 2,000 members of staff.

From 2014 Fiona started asking questions and raising concerns about governance within the KWETB.

In 2017 the C&AG conducted an investigation of the 2015 accounts and found serious lapses in procurement and other

issues. These issues are currently under investigation by the Garda Economic Crime Bureau. 

"I would like to acknowledge the staff of the KWETB and our amazing students. As a board

member I am incredibly proud of teaching and other staff who have continued to focus on

our students during what has been a very difficult time’

Cllr McLoughlin Healy has been busy in other areas too. Shortly after getting elected in

2014 she started a campaign to get the council to deliver a long awaited skatepark for

Newbridge and for funding to reopen Newbridge Town Hall. She campaigned for a further

two years once the hall was successfully opened to reduce the price for hiring the hall.

Over the last five years she regularly drew attention to the urgent need for a traffic

management plan for Newbridge and requested that it be escalated to the National

Transport Authority. In 2018 the NTA committed to delivering the traffic management plan

alongside public realm works, worth over €10 million, in the coming years

‘ If elected on Friday 24th I will continue to campaign for the NTA traffic management plan

to be delivered. And I will continue to lobby for a second bridge for Newbridge which is an

absolute imperative if we are serious about optimising traffic flows around this large growth

town’

In her spare time Fiona is an assistant coach with Sarsfield’s U14’s girls and is on the

board of Sensational Kids a social enterprise which provides services for children with

additional learning needs throughout Ireland.

‘ I would like to take this opportunity to thank my family, my friends and my supporters the

people who elected me to Kildare County Council in 2014. It has been an incredible

privilege”