Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I echo Senator Joe O'Reilly's concerns about Belarus and the deteriorating situation there. Ireland has taken a strong position, which I urge be continued. This situation shows that we need to appreciate how fortunate we are to live in a free and democratic country such as ours.

I am always struck by the Christmas story, which is a story of refugees seeking freedom from oppression. Consider what we have achieved this year. The Afghan admission programme has just opened, a regularisation scheme for long-term undocumented migrants has been introduced and we are moving towards abolishing direct provision. The values of which we speak, which can be determined as Christian or liberal values of tolerance and inclusion, are important to those of us in the House. I felt that was part of the debate on the TRIPS waiver motion. We have moved quite a degree in terms of the Christmas message and what we have been delivering but we need to do more.

I echo the sincere thanks to all of my colleagues for their co-operation and work during the year, to the Cathaoirleach, to Mr. Groves, and to the staff and everyone else who works in Leinster House. We need to keep in mind those who will be working over the Christmas period, including healthcare workers and those in local authorities and emergency services.I think also of the RNLI. For those of us who will be out on Christmas Day swims and so on, its members will still be going out. Finally, I want to say a word for the workers in An Post. They have been tremendous during the entire course of the pandemic but during the Christmas period they are particularly busy. I thank all of the postal workers for their work and I wish everybody a very happy Christmas.