Fidelma Healy Eames (Fine Gael)

I wish to add my words of greeting and blessings to everyone in this House — to you, a Cathaoirligh, the Seanad staff and clerks, and to all my fellow Senators in this House. We soldier together here. We have our battles but, ultimately, we are all present with the intention to do our best by the country and the people, be it at Government level, party level or individual level. We must always keep in mind that we are here at the behest of people and out of service to our country. The coming year will be a test for our country. It will be also a test for us in the Seanad and it will be a test for democracy. We have fallen on hard times because we are measuring ourselves against a benchmark that we thought we could always maintain but we have had to change our view in that regard. I thank Senator Colm Burke for reminding us of what we have. We have a great deal. If we just changed the lenses through which we look at the country, the world and our own lot, we would realise we can still do much for ourselves.

On that note, I congratulate the local community where I was born. It just won the "golden mile". It is a place called Lakeview, Moylough, County Galway. It is a heritage mile. It is a special heritage project whereby all of the historic projects have been mapped within one mile of the gate of the house where I was born. I heard late last night that it won the "golden mile". The community has done that for itself and I applaud those involved. If every one of us finds something unique to which we can contribute, we will redefine ourselves as a people. I wish everyone a happy Christmas. It is good to see the smiles again this morning after some late nights.