Eugene Murphy (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State, Senator Hackett, who has left us now, mentioned forking the silage on her nice little trip down to Mayo. A lot of heads popped up from the phones and looked over with surprise. She is well known for forking out the silage on her own farm in Offaly. She is no stranger to it.

Like other Senators I wish to express my good wishes to all the staff of this House who are excellent people. I thank the ushers, cleaners and everybody associated, those in the Library and Research Service, the Cathaoirleach and his staff, particularly Grace Coyle who happens to be a neighbour of mine. We wish to express our thanks to everyone, as Senator O'Loughlin has done earlier.

It has been a really trying year for everybody. We should reflect today on giving a little bit of acknowledgement to the GPs, HSE staff, nurses and anybody who has been involved with the vaccination campaign and now the booster campaign. We should also reserve a place for the people of Ireland who, over very trying times in the past two years, have acted with respect and dignity. It has been hard. Some have seen their business hit. Some are not sure about vaccinations. In general people have stuck with the Government and with the medical advice. I am not going to deny that it has been really tough at times to accept it. We have to accept it because we are fighting a pandemic and we can see it is rising again. It is really important to remember the people of Ireland and always to acknowledge and listen to what they are saying. Without them, we could not have got as far as we have. In general, while we have our difficulties, we are not in a bad space.

I wish my colleagues a happy Christmas. It is really a pleasure to be dealing with them. Let us all have a happy and peaceful Christmas.