Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to join in the remarks about Tom Hickey. He is an absolute gentleman and at all times courteous, highly efficient and very gracious. Tom has a unique wit of his own, and a charm and warmth. I wish him, Lorraine and their family a lot of quality time together, and a great retirement. Knowing Tom, he will find a lot of interesting and good things to do in his retirement. I certainly wish him well with that.

On the day that is in it, I wish the Cathaoirleach, colleagues in the House and our Deputy Leader a very happy and good Christmas, and a good new year. I extend that to the staff of the House here who, as we all know, are excellent and so helpful to all of us, led by Martin, Bridget and all the staff in the Seanad Office. I also thank the ushers and all the people who help us along. It is a pleasure to wish all of these colleagues a happy Christmas and, I hope, a successful, peaceful and good one.

At Christmas, safety is at a premium. It behoves us here to appeal publicly to people to be responsible in their driving, and in all facets of life at Christmas but especially those who are behind the wheel. I appeal to them to obey the law with regard to alcohol. etc. It should not just be a question of whether there are checkpoints. It should be something people want to do, and I hope that will be the case.

Given that we are talking about Christmas, one cannot help but think - in the context of the Holy Land etc., and the Christian festival - of the horror that is in Gaza. It is a travesty of human rights and of the human condition. It is very wrong, and the excesses of the war being perpetuated there by Israel are totally unacceptable. There has to be a ceasefire. I welcome the approach of the Government on this.This House should be unambiguous in saying there should be a long-term, extended ceasefire with humanitarian aid allowed in and talks at an international level to advance a permanent settlement, which one still hopes would be the two-state solution. Many things that have happened in recent years have made that an especially difficult challenge, but there has to be peace. Ultimately, there will be peace and should be, and the quicker and sooner, the better. Everything happening there is the absolute opposite of everything the Christian festival is meant to be about. This is a time when we should be unambiguous about it.