Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I want to acknowledge that it has been six months since I became a Senator here. Reflecting back, I am proud of working with all my colleagues here to pass legislation that has had such an impact, particularly this year when dealing with Covid-19.

I will mention a few other things around Christmas. Again, I encourage people who are going home for Christmas and will be meeting their parents and grandparents to think about getting the children's nasal spray. We have one week. It will make a big impact and keep people out of hospital so it is a great thing.

Today is a chance to wear something sparkly. I wore my sparkly earrings as part of the Irish Cancer Society's #WearToCare initiative. We can encourage people and all our colleagues. Today is the day. I am sure there are many sparkly things we can wear to promote something today to raise funds. It has been a hard year for many charities to be raising funds.

Lastly, we are opening up counties now and many people will be going home. We can go back home to the west. Traffic is heavy, so be safe. I encourage people to think about shopping local when they get back to the town or village they left many years ago. Perhaps we can all think about buying and supporting something local. We should shop and look for local products because all of these things are important.

I am biased because Ballinasloe looks absolutely beautiful with its brand-new lights. I encourage anyone who is going back west to pop into Ballinasloe off the motorway and check out our lovely Christmas tree and reindeer. It looks absolutely stunning. People should bring the big and little kids and have a look. If we can do that, we are really going to have a great Christmas. I ask everyone to be happy and safe. There are a few more hard months to go but we have light at the end of the tunnel.