Ned O'Sullivan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have two brief matters to raise. We are heading into the Christmas season. It is extraordinary how Christmas comes around earlier and earlier. One of these days, it will start before the Listowel races in September with the way it is going. I wish to remind people around the country about the importance of shopping locally at a time when so much money will be spent. I am not saying that I am opposed to online shopping; we live in the real world. People from the country like to have their big days out in Dublin, Cork or wherever they go. I was in the drapery trade for many years, however, and we all know that Christmas shopping is the lifeblood of the small or medium retailer. Such retailers need a good Christmas to get through the year. I would like to uphold the good service that people are accustomed to getting in their own towns from long-established firms such as mine used to be. People should shop locally and be patriotic. We need jobs in small towns. We are trying to regenerate rural Ireland. This is time for people to put their hands in their pockets and support local industry. They will get value and service.

On a more serious note, we had an important event in the Dáil last week when all the young people gathered and had a wonderful debate on climate change and so on. It was great to see young people having an interest in politics, which I have always encouraged. Now I am not so sure. I am not a child and I know that politics was never the boy scouts. I do not want to be too po-faced about it since we have to have the cut and thrust. I am personally becoming alarmed, however, at the standards that obtain at present in politics in Ireland. I do not point a finger at any single individual or party. It is quite the opposite but I think a race to the bottom has been going on in these Houses in recent months, as well as in comments in the media, from all parties and addressed against all parties. It is suddenly no longer about policy or the economy but seems to be about what one did or said, or what one can be caught doing. I dread what will happen between now and when the election is called in May or whenever, if we spend all the time trawling and digging and having our officers and backroom staff at that kind of game.