Liam Aylward

Who is Liam Aylward?

Liam Aylward is an Irish Fianna Fáil politician and an ALDE Member of the European Parliament for the East constituency. He was a Teachta Dála for Carlow–Kilkenny from 1977 to 2007.

Liam Aylward was born in Mullinavat, County Kilkenny in 1952. He was educated at St Kierans College, Kilkenny. He worked as a laboratory technician before getting involved in politics. He was elected to Kilkenny County Council in 1974, serving on that authority until 1992.

Aylward was first elected to Dáil Éireann as a Fianna Fáil TD for the Carlow–Kilkenny constituency at the 1977 general election in what proved to be a landslide for Fianna Fáil. Since then he has served as Minister of State at the Department of Energy, at the Department of Education and at the Department of Agriculture and Food. In 2004 he was elected to the European Parliament in the East constituency for Fianna Fáil, which was then part of the Union for a Europe of Nations.

Since the 2009 European Parliament election, Fianna Fáil is affiliated with the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe. Aylward is a member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, the delegation for relations with Mercosur and the delegation to the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly. Aylward is also a substitute member of the Committee on Culture and Education and the delegation to the ACP–EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.