UPDATED: Kildare TD ‘odds on’ for promotion in Agriculture

MARTIN Heydon is heavily tipped for promotion in the new Government, and is widely expected to move up one office - from Minister for State in the department to actually being the next Minister for Agriculture.

Speaking with The Kildare Nationalist briefly on Monday lunchtime (20 January) Deputy Heydon said: “It would be the honour of my life if I was appointed, but I genuinely don’t know”.

“It is flattering to be tipped, but many politicians have been predicted for Cabinet seats only to be disappointed,” he cautioned.

“It’s been 21 years since Charlie McCreevy, and 28 years since Fine Gael had Minister in Kildare South in Alan Dukes,” he said.

“We’re too big a county not to have one [Ministry], I’m aware I’m in the mix, but I won’t know until Wednesday,” he said.

Cllr Ivan Keatley, the man who replaced Heydon on Kildare County Council in 2011, said: “Obviously, it would be great for south Kildare to have a minister. We haven’t had one in 20 years since Charlie McCreevy, and that’s too long.

“I know Martin has worked very hard to get himself into a position of influence, but we’d be very disappointed here if he didn’t get it."

A man that formerly held that very job – Wexford farmer and former Fine Gael TD Ivan Yeates said: “I am reliably told that Martin Heydon will be the next Minister for Agriculture, and you can quote me on that”.

Backing this up, one major bookmaker has quoted Heydon as odd-on favourite for the job.

He is to the manor born, in this respect, as he lives on the family farm, and attended agricultural college in Kilkenny.

He has served a solid apprenticeship in the Department, having been Minister for State in Agriculture and Marine for the entirety of the last Government, and previously Chair of Fine Gael’s Internal Committee on Agriculture and Rural Affairs between 2011 and 2016.

Following this, Heydon was chair of his party’s Parliamentary Party from 2016 to 2020.

He was first elected as a a 33-year-old in 2011 when he topped the poll and was elected on first count, 3,000 votes over quota.

Heydon is married to pharmacist and two-time All-Star Brianna, who captained Kildare to All-Ireland glory in 2004, and last year came out of retirement at 42 years of ace to help her club win a fifth county title.