I echo the words of condolence for Saffie Rose and Georgina, the eight and 18-year old young girl and woman, who were the first victims from the Manchester attack to be named today. We are heartbroken and we send our love and support to the people of Manchester.

Today I welcome the review published by the HSE into maternity care in this country. The clinical complaints covered four decades, with particular emphasis on the Midland Regional Hospital Portlaoise. It was initiated following an RTE programme "Fatal Failures" in 2004, another whistleblowing programme on which I commend RTE. It also did a programme on Grace. It has done much over the past two decades to point out the absurdities and failures in this country.

The findings of the report and review cover 203 complaints received relating to perinatal death, maternal death, communication and the management of labour among others. It has taken too long, from 2014 to 2017, to get this report published today. This has exacerbated the stress and grief of those who lost babies in difficult and unusual circumstances. It is necessary that we learn lessons and implement recommendations which will help underpin quality compassionate care that is science-led in our hospitals for our women and babies. I hope the proposed national maternity hospital will get rid of any church and religious influences and will go along with science and compassion.

Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families. Targeting a concert attended by young people, many of them teenagers, is plumbing new depths of depravity and is truly a massacre of the innocents. Every Irish person stands in solidarity today with the city of Manchester, which has been devastated by a vile act of terrorism. We must remember that Manchester has a very proud Irish community, many of whom are from my region of the west of Ireland. It is estimated that approximately 35,000 Irish people live in the greater Manchester area. This senseless atrocity has left Manchester reeling. While this is a time of deep sadness it is also clear that its people will not cave in to terrorism. The Seanad stands united in absolutely deploring this outrageous crime against humanity.

I join my colleagues in expressing my sincere sympathy to the people of Manchester on the terrible happening last evening.

Our thoughts and prayers are with them.

I wish to raise the issue of children's hospice care. This week is Children's Hospice Week so it is fitting that we should address the issues of funding and planning for children's hospice care in this country. I pay tribute to the hospice services throughout the country which do great work providing much-needed care for people who are very ill and much-needed support for their families. It is particularly sad to see children in need of hospice care. This week the LauraLynn children's hospice said there are an estimated 506 sick children in this country in need of hospice care who do not have access to it. That is a very sad statistic. It is estimated that at any given time in this country, 3,800 children with life-threatening conditions are in need of hospice care. Of that figure, an estimated 700 are in need of immediate hospice care.

There are two issues that must be addressed. The first is funding. Funding currently provided by the HSE only allows the LauraLynn facility to cater for 150 sick children. The facility can cater for approximately 200 children. There is also the issue of sick children in rural Ireland and how they are to get care. I ask the Leader to bring this matter to the attention of the Minister as a matter of urgency. The one luxury these sick children do not have is time.

I had intended to raise a separate issue but most Members of the House would agree that everything is overshadowed by the events in Manchester. Like other Members I ask you, a Chathaoirligh, to express the Seanad's condolences with the people of Britain, the Prime Minister, Ms Theresa May, and the newly elected Mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham. It is difficult to come to terms with what happened last night and to find an adequate response. Unfortunately, when something so hateful and evil occurs the response can often be one of hate. While there has been a massive outpouring of love and compassion among the ordinary, decent people of Manchester there were, unfortunately, sentiments of hate swirling around and trying to capitalise on this event to once again dehumanise and denigrate an entire faith and decent people living in Britain.

It was the Irish who once bombed Manchester and people in this country stood with the people of Manchester at that time, so it is important to do so now in the face of this appalling tragedy. Anybody in this House or in Ireland who knows a young person who has ever attended a concert can only weep at the thought of the scenes that were witnessed by the young people. Those who have survived will have flashes of imagery going through their minds for the rest of their lives. It will not leave them, so how do we fight back as has been suggested? What we must have in our armoury, as Senator McDowell so eloquently put it, is information and knowledge, as well as compassion, love and a belief that in unity and understanding we can create a society that can overcome these things.

Again, we stand in solidarity with the people of Manchester. We must not allow those of a certain political persuasion to use this event for their own narrow ends to denigrate an entire people or faith in the UK. There are also people in this jurisdiction who will use this for their own ends as well. We are better than that. We are a proud and decent people. It is only through compassion, love and understanding that this terrorism will be defeated.

I join in the expressions of sympathy to the people of Manchester and, of course, to people throughout the UK, as many youngsters had travelled to Manchester for this concert. It is a real tragedy. It hits home for us in Mayo as so many Mayo people have gone to Manchester over the years.

There is a Mayo Association in Manchester and we have the Mayo Manchester Tradfest every August in my home town of Ballina. Many young Irish dancers and musicians come over from Manchester on exchanges. What happened yesterday is horrific and I join my colleagues in sending my thoughts, prayers and solidarity in the face of this evil.

I ask the Leader to invite the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, Deputy Paschal Donohoe, to the House to discuss the mid-term capital review. We need to have a real debate about infrastructural deficits in this country. There are deficits all over the country but particularly in the west and the north west, which has no major inter-urban routes, no high-speed train service and only a limited deep water port in Killybegs, not to mention the broadband deficit. We must consider where we can invest in order to grow these areas. These are areas which are experiencing population decline, where teacher numbers are falling because school enrolments are dropping because families cannot live there because they cannot find work. In the big urban centres children cannot find school places and families cannot find places to live, while there are empty houses in the west and north west. Investment in infrastructure by the State will make these areas less peripheral, improve connectivity and make them more attractive to investors. This is particularly pertinent as we face into Brexit. Investment in infrastructure can sometimes be curtailed by EU state aid rules. We found this to be the case with regard to Knock Airport, which is limited in what it can get from the State because of these rules. There is a case to be made for a temporary framework, similar to what was done in the face of the banking crisis in 2009. We need to see investment in the western rail corridor, in roads, broadband and in Knock Airport.