Déanaim mo chomhbhrón le clanna Dolores O'Riordan faoina bás. Ceoltóir agus amhránaí den scoth ab ea í. Bhí tionchar faoi leith aici ar chúrsaí ceoil agus clú agus cáil uirthi ar fud an domhain.

I want to send my personal sympathies to the children and the family of Dolores O'Riordan, a world-class musician and singer, a great ambassador for Irish music and creativity, who had a huge impact on many generations. She also spoke frankly and gave important insights into life itself. While world famous, she retained throughout that time a great commitment and connection to her native city, Limerick, her family and tradition. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam dílis.

May I raise an issue on the Order of Business?

Yes, if the Deputy is brief.

I did not realise there would be expressions of sympathy at the beginning.

Neither did I which makes two of us.

We were told it was arranged for the Order of Business. That is why I was waiting. Obviously, there has been a miscommunication somewhere.

Deputy Lowry raised the difficult plight of Scoil Aonghusa in Tipperary which I visited with Deputy Jackie Cahill. I must comment on the wonderful telepathy between the Taoiseach and Deputy Lowry on the needs of Scoil Aonghusa, needs which I support and endorse. I hope the same telepathy will apply to other Deputies across the country for their specific projects in their constituencies.

It brings to mind the wider issue, despite what the Taoiseach has said, concerning the significant disconnect between the rhetoric and reality for many special needs children across the country in accessing to physiotherapy, speech and language therapy and occupational therapy, as well as mental health services. Will he outline when the sections of the Education for Persons with Special Educational Needs Act relating to the rights of children with special needs will be commenced? It is over a decade since the relevant sections, which will give rights to children with special needs, were enacted but never commenced. We have this significant debate about the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, to a large extent, it is meaningless when we are not prepared to commence the relevant sections of legislation we passed in the Oireachtas over a decade ago.

The Taoiseach spelled out the work done in the Department with a 44% increase in the resources being invested in this area, a massive expansion in the number of resource teachers with 3,000 extra special needs assistants, SNAs, and 1,500 extra resource teachers in the past two years.

I did not ask about that.

It has always been indicated that until the service has been developed further that the cost of implementing this would be significant. The Department has not been in a position to date to implement the terms to which the Deputy referred. That does not in any way diminish the commitment in this area to develop programmes and to see that children with special needs are not only welcomed but fulfil their potential.

We cannot commence our own Act while fighting about the UN convention. This is dreadful hypocrisy.

Please, Deputy. I call Deputy Adams.