Ex-Green councillor and daughter of former president Eskine Childers, Nessa Childers has today launched her campaign to become an MEP for Ireland East for the Labour Party.
Ms Childers originally joined the Labour Party before the last local elections in 2004 but, when she failed to get a nomination to run for Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown Council, she switched to the Greens and was elected as a Green councillor.
However she resigned her seat last August because of the demands of work but rejoined the Labour Party the following month.
Ms Childers, who is a psychoanalyst and mother of two children, said today that the main priority was to tackle the growing tide of joblessness in Co Kildare, where more than 13,000 people are now unemployed
"The European Union has been behind many of the best economic, environmental and social improvements we have witnessed in the past three decades. I hope this is just the beginning, and that we can work together
in the best interests of Kildare at local and at European level into the future."