Evie will be knocking on your door
Evie won't be delivering post, though she may well have an introductory letter to leave behind. She'll be sussing out local issues and concerns as the newly appointed Fine Gael Local Area Representative for the Naas Municipal District.
This is a voluntary position, where she'll be helping local councillors and Kildare South TD Martin Heydon with their constituency work, especially in her home area of Ballymore, as well as Kilcullen, Two Mile House and Caragh. For those first three she'll be working particularly with Cllr Billy Hillis. "He has been very supportive of me in this," Evie says.
She isn't new to this kind of work. In a late shift from an interest in a career in Food Science during her final year at St Mary's College in Naas, she decided to go instead for a degree in Politics and International Relations at the University of Limerick. During her first year, not having any previous political affiliations, she spent holiday time working in Kildare North TD Anthony Lawlor's constituency office, an experience from which she decided to join Young Fine Gael when she returned to UofL.
"I hadn't been an activist of any kind at school, though I was involved in the Student Council from Second Year and finished up as Head Girl. Looking back, I now realise that was kind of politics in its own right. When I qualified in 2016, I got a temporary job in the Department of Children, and while there I heard of an opening for a Secretarial Assistant for Frances Fitzgerald TD, then Tanaiste and Minister for Justice. I applied, got it, and I've been working with her Parliamentary Assistant out of her constituency office in Clondalkin ever since."
As well as helping Minister Fitzgerald — now with the portfolio of Business, Enterprise and Innovation — with the myriad of paperwork and research involved in her parliamentary activities, it has also given Evie a lot of practice of knocking on doors in the Minister's constituency. "I'm kind of the connection between her and the people on the ground, where I'm taking in all the representations and sorting them out for her, so I've gained a lot of experience in a short time, in both local and national issues. I did a fair bit of canvassing with the Tanaiste during the last election, so I know what's behind the door."
Being appointed as a Local Area Representative is generally looked on a precursor to trying for elective office, and there are a number of councillors and even TDs in County Kildare who have successfully taken this route. Evie is very open about her upwards ambition in politics, but figures there's a good length of road to travel first. Though with a year and a half before the next local elections, she has time to make her presence felt before throwing her hat into the candidate selection process for that encounter.
She is already conscious of significant issues in her area, especially concerns about crime, vandalism and general security in rural areas like West Wicklow and Kildare South. "Given my time working around the Department of Justice with Frances Fitzgerald, I can bring a fair amount of knowledge to this area. But there are lots of other concerns out there too, and I'll be asking people to let me know about their individual issues."
As she describes it, she is a new 'extra pair of eyes on the ground' for the local FG public representatives. But she is also a new local 'face' of the party in her area, and she knows even at this early stage in the process, that's going to be important to her future direction. "I know that social media, email and the internet are important, but getting out and meeting people is just as much so. When it comes to elections, personal recognition has much to do with success."
At just 24 years of age, Evie will need that personal recognition across a wide demographic, both the older generations of families long resident in the district as well as the very large cohort of new people who have come to live in places like Kilcullen.
We'll be seeing a lot of her, I suspect.
