Susan O'Keeffe (Labour)

It has indeed been a challenging and interesting year. My car keys were locked in my office. I have been locked out of Leinster House. I lost my way around the car park of the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine. Several ushers repaired a puncture for me in the car park, while ushers also bought me milk late at night when I could not find a cup of tea. I echo the thanks that others have given here today for helping with all the small dilemmas, not to mind the large ones. The courtesy extended to me over the months has been enormous and patient. I do not know what they were saying when I finished with my various problems, but everybody has been very helpful to me.

As the Whip of the Labour Party in the Seanad, I particularly thank Senator Paul Coghlan, who has been very supportive to me as I found my way around the responsibilities of that role. I will disregard some of the names that have been attached to the Senator and to me.

I thank the Leader, Senator Cummins. He has been very patient and willing to take on board all the various suggestions we have made. He has tried to introduce them in the interests of better business in the House and a more active and engaged House. I also thank the leader of the Labour Party in the Seanad, Senator Bacik, who has been a tremendous inspiration and has been an extremely hard-working leader on behalf of our group.

On behalf of the Seanad, perhaps we might congratulate those people who we know have been nominated for Golden Globe awards. I spoke at length on the legislation for the Irish Film Board. At that time, I spoke about my uncle, Tom Cooper from Killarney, and now we have Michael Fassbender, born in Germany but who grew up in Killarney, finding himself in the company of people like George Clooney and Leonardo DiCaprio in the running for an award. In terms of music, we have Sinéad O'Connor and Brian Byrne, while Brendan Gleeson, who I enjoyed watching many years ago when he started on the stage in Dublin, is yet again upholding great standards for Irish acting and drama. I would like the Leader to find a moment, on behalf of all of us, to send the congratulations of the Seanad because our culture and our film industry are held dear by many in this House. We should collectively send our best wishes to those who have worked very hard and who fly the flag for Irish drama and culture across the world.

I wish everybody a happy and peaceful Christmas and echo some of the remarks made by Senator O'Donovan about those who find Christmas particularly difficult. Our thoughts are with those who find this period a little more challenging. I look forward to seeing everybody in 2012.