Aisling Dolan (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like my colleagues, I wish the staff in the Seanad Office a happy Christmas, and wish Tom Hickey well in this retirement. I thank my colleagues, including Caroline, Mikayala and my team in Roscommon and Galway, for all their support this year. It has been a difficult year.

People are preparing for Christmas. I encourage them to shop local, where they can, when they are buying presents. It is crucial that we support jobs in our towns. I ask people, where possible, to shop in and think about the small shops in our local areas.

Continuing on a previous point that was made, farm incomes are a major driver of spending in our rural towns, particularly in Roscommon and Galway. As Senator Lombard mentioned, the Government expanded ACRES to include over 46,000 farming families. It has increased the spend on this, but we need to see investment and expansion of the IT systems in the Department of agriculture to manage the payments to these families in a timely manner. It is shocking to think that some of these families that have been expecting payments have not received them.

I join with everyone here in calling for peace and a ceasefire in Gaza. There are many families that have lost loved ones, but now we think of people who have lost loved ones in war. We think of Ukraine too. I want to highlight the importance of democracies across the world in this day and age, and call for strong and balanced leadership to guide people to peace this Christmas.