I also wish all my colleagues in the Oireachtas a peaceful Christmas and a prosperous new year as well as the hard working staff of the service who have done so much great work in the last year.

I have been a Member of the Seanad since 2002 and it has certainly changed. It is not the same type of divisional Seanad. Some six or seven years ago, Senator Craughwell was the first person in the history of a majority Government to have more Fine Gael people voting for him in a Seanad by-election than voting for their own candidate for certain reasons-----

Senator Craughwell should be reminded of that every day.

-----while Senators Lawlor and Marshall were elected on a cross-party basis. This is positive. We work together in the Seanad in a positive manner and they have brought their own views to this House, for which there is much to be said.

Roscommon has certainly been in the news in the last two weeks. I live in Castlerea at the weekends and two weeks ago there was an incident there. Last weekend, hundreds of people marched about that incident between a garda and members of the public. I understand the details are before the Garda Síochána Ombudsman Commission, GSOC, but I can say there is huge anger and worry about this incident. I hope GSOC will deal with it. On Strokestown, there is a protest march again next Sunday and I hope it will be peaceful. I believe it will be because the people in the area are peaceful. Sometimes people come from elsewhere in the country to marches such as this and may want to use them for their own purposes.

I agree with Senator McDowell that An Garda Síochána is the sole legitimate guardian of peace in the State and that it upholds the law. In the last few years since the recession, we had the water protests where people said "Shame on you" to An Garda Síochána but it is our force and it bore the brunt. I know that many gardaí were followed home and that people told them that they knew the address of their family. That is not good enough.

I thank Commissioner Drew Harris because he came to Roscommon yesterday and is looking at the two incidents. It is very positive that An Garda Síochána is taking time out to look at this issue because these two incidents need to be dealt with professionally and in a delicate way. The last two weeks in Roscommon have been difficult for the Garda, the people of Roscommon, the people who were evicted and the people who were attacked. At the end of the day, the rule of law has to hold and the Garda is the sole guardian of peace.