Education
University of Limerick.
University of Limerick.
He was elected to the 24th Seanad in April 2011 on the Agricultural Panel for the Labour Party. He was an unsuccessful candidate at the 2011 general election for the Limerick constituency, polling 7,910 first preference votes (175%). He was also a candidate at 2007 general election for the Limerick West constituency.
A graduate of the University of Limerick, Heffernan is a primary school teacher by profession.
Before becoming a full-time politician, Heffernan taught in a number of schools, including Street Anne"s in Whitechapel, London. He lost the parliamentary Labour Party whip in December 2012 after voting against the government on the Social Welfare Bill.
The loss of the whip resulted in a falloff in Heffernan"s Seanad voting attendance. In September 2013, it was reported that Heffernan attended only 23% of all votes in the Seanad, the second worst record.
On 4 September 2015, the Social Democrats announced that Heffernan was one of their five election candidates.
In February 2015, he claimed he was forming a new political party in order to oppose Sinn Féin.
He was previously a member of Limerick County Council from 2009-2011 for the Kilmallock electoral area.