Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish everybody here a Happy Christmas and festive season. Like Senator Hoey, I like seeing the sparkles and everything. I joined in with the earrings and I know that many of the guys here are wearing their festive ties. It is a privilege and an honour to be here and to speak with a strong voice on so many topics but particularly on things that are relevant to where I come from, in Ballinasloe, east Galway and Roscommon. Also I thank Ms Deirdre Chambers who works in our Whip’s office here, who our Acting Leader would know very well and Caroline Lynch in my own team, who are absolute treasures. I look forward to 2022 being a better year. I thank everyone in our towns and villages and each person in every type of job who have done so much to help the country through this crisis. I am thinking of people filling shelves, truck drivers bringing supplies, people doing overtime in so many companies, particularly in the area of medical technology.

I wish to mention how Medtronic ramped up ventilator production in Galway and took on hundreds of people and completed incredible feats. They did 24-7 shifts and increased their production levels five times over. That was to save lives across the world and provide ventilators. Its CEO, Geoff Martha, recently received the Ireland-US Council's global achievement award for 2021 and he said that medical technology and healthcare services, together with third level colleges and local groups in Galway joined forces in an unprecedented way at the height of the pandemic. I want to acknowledge that, which is completely incredible.

I also want to acknowledge our children wearing masks in schools and leading the way in keeping our families safe, and our students and young people whose lives have changed so much. There has been an incredible change in connection, isolation and loneliness for so many.

Finally, I want to ask people, where I have no shopping done and I do not know about anybody else here, but when people are going out shopping I ask them to think about their local shops. They should shop local and look for local. They have spent so much in getting supplies in for Christmas and have done so much over the past year to stay open. There are books, jewellery, toys, house furnishings and even, as the Minister of State, Senator Hackett has said there, the organic farm shops, and so on. We should think about how we can support the people in one’s own community. It means so much coming up to Christmas. Nollaig Shona Daoibh go léir.