I call on the out-of-breath Senator Sherlock.

I raise the statement of the Minister of State, Deputy Madigan, last week regarding four schools. I think it is fair to say this was a stunt designed to cover up the failures within the Department of Education. The hurt and negative aspersions that have been cast over the four schools have been very damaging. One of the schools, St. Gabriel's National School in Stoneybatter, has a great record and reputation for providing for children with additional needs. This September, it will have eight class teachers and six support teachers, while a special class for those with moderate difficulties was established in 2016. That says a lot about the commitment of the school to pupils with additional needs, yet last week the Minister of State sought to portray it as uncaring and as failing to provide any resource or support to children with additional needs, which could not have been further from the truth.

The truth is that that school has been working for the past year on putting in place a new autism spectrum disorder, ASD, unit for September 2023 and working with the architects engaged by the Department of Education itself to renovate two classrooms, yet that did not seem to matter when a letter was sent from the Department to the archbishop at 7.30 p.m. on Friday, 17 June. You could not have made it up. The email to the archbishop was cc'd to the school. The Department did not even have the grace to send it directly to the school and instead effectively put a gun to its head and said that if it did not engage, its name would be published. The school engaged and replied, yet that did not matter when the Minister of State made her statement last week.

She has done severe damage to schools that are trying really hard, and it is important that any of us who knows those schools speaks up. The school I know, St. Gabriel's, has a great record and reputation and it wants to continue doing that work. The Minister of State needs to get on with her work of ensuring there are more special places, as opposed to seeking to cast blame. I have come to know that St. Gabriel's is putting in a new ASD unit because a preschool will have to leave that school building over the next 12 months and the area will lose a very precious and important preschool facility because it is located within that primary school. It is a complete nonsense to say the school has not been engaging.

Separately, the public sector pay talks have been off the radar for the past two weeks, since their collapse, and we have not heard any meaningful or substantial offer from the Government. We are hearing from public sector workers that they are looking for a pay deal and the Government has not yet come to the table. We need to see it happen.

That was a quiet opening to this week's proceedings. To respond to Senator Sherlock, I think I heard the Tánaiste clearly state that our public servants deserve a pay rise. The offer made was very generous, although the talks stalled insofar as it was rejected. I think it would be expected that any union would reject the first offer. We all know how these negotiations play out and I assure the Senator they will end very shortly in a productive pay increase for all our public servants.

With regard to the announcement by the Minister of State with responsibility for special education, this is the first time in the history of the State that there has been a Minister of State with that sole responsibility. We have never spent more money on providing special education for all our children who need it. As the numbers have grown over recent years, there has been an increase in the number of special needs assistants to levels our Garda force does not even enjoy, so we know and recognise how great an issue it is to provide services in a timely manner. We have all experienced frustrations with the Department over the years in regard to schools we have represented, but to be fair to the Minister of State, her announcement on Friday evening was as a result of many months of frustration with regard not just to the four schools she mentioned but to many schools throughout the country that see this as a negotiation. They think that if they have to do something on behalf of the Department to serve the needs of their pupils, they will make sure they will get something else. That is a really frustrating place to be, not least when parents and children need the provision of services from the State, and we all know how critical we are of the State when it does not provide those services. To be fair, the delivery of the services is incumbent not just on the Department of Education, the National Council for Special Education, NCSE, or anybody else who is responsible for special needs services but also on every vested interest to ensure we will work in a timely manner to serve the children we know need the additional resources.

The Minister of State's statement was born out of frustration more than anything else. What I really welcome is the newfound renewed capacity to be able to work with the Department to make sure we do deliver not just for the children of Stoneybatter but also for the children of Coolock and all the other children around the country who need special education and extra resources.

Senators Craughwell, Buttimer and Ó Donnghaile spoke about the announcement by the Department of Defence and the Minister for Defence of the sanctioning of our Defence Forces to help out with Dublin Airport, particularly around security issues we know we have seen over the past few weeks but expect to probably be exacerbated because of the rise of Covid in the coming weeks. While Senator Craughwell makes very valid points regarding the stipend that will be paid to our Defence Forces, I must say that I am very proud that we have Defence Forces who are willing to stand up in any and every emergency in this country because they never let us down.

Despite all the difficulties with regard to recruitment, pay and conditions - everything we have spoken about for the past number of years - they never let the State down so they are to be commended. This is not to say that Dublin Airport should not be reminded of the fact that the reason we are in this mess is because it miscalculated, let 1,000 people go and offered a paltry and precarious contract in recent weeks looking for people to work 20 hours but to be available for 40 hours for buttons. It has nobody to blame but itself for being in this situation. Thankfully, after recent years, which were absolutely crap, people are going on their holidays again, which is wonderful to see. I want to put on the record that I am immensely grateful to our Defence Forces, who consistently stand up and help us when we find ourselves in the breach. Senator Craughwell also raised the 2016 medal. I will follow up with the Minister for Defence and come back to him.

Senator Gallagher reminded us that today is International Neonatal Screening Day and asked me to send a letter to the Minister for Health to find out when spinal muscular atrophy will be included in our national screening programme. I am very happy to do that.

Senator Buttimer spoke about the lovely, happy, warm and fun feeling we all experienced on the streets of our capital city on Saturday. It really was an enormous pleasure to be there, to support and to be an ally but also just to enjoy the fun and experience the joy that our friends, neighbours, cousins and colleagues - our citizens - expressed on the streets on Saturday. The Senator is right to remind us all that certain things happen to certain minority communities not just in Ireland but all over the world. I add my condolences to those of the Senator for the two gentlemen whose lives were taken so cruelly in Oslo on Saturday and remind everybody that we all need to be allies for every single minority and diverse community in Ireland because they suffer an awful lot of things we might not even be conscious of. I remind everybody to be an ally not just for the month of June but for every month.

Senator Ó Donnghaile asked that the Minister for Transport come to the House to give us an update on the all-Ireland rail review. Senator Buttimer looked for an update on the Dublin Airport plans. I think both Senators are aware that we are very stretched for the next couple of weeks but I will do my best to try to get it in as quickly as possible.

Senator Boyhan had previously asked for time to be set aside for a rolling debate on health. This request was made to the Minister for Health last week. I regret to say that the only access I have to the Minister for the final two weeks of this term is to debate the Bill Senator Murphy spoke about this morning that will remove charges for children under the age 16 in public hospitals. I will organise a debate on the issues highlighted by Senator Boyhan this morning as soon as the Minister's diary allows and if it is not possible in this term, I will organise one to take place as quickly as possible when we come back after the summer recess.

Senator Kyne spoke about the impact of fuel prices on home help carers who are agency staff and asked me to raise the issue with the Minister for Health, which I will do. He also spoke about the €1,000 Covid payment that, unfortunately, has been ring-fenced only for HSE staff instead of for all staff.

Senator Murphy welcomed the third domestic violence strategy, which will be announced in full detail by the Minister for Justice this afternoon, and commended the fact that we will now have a refuge centre for victims of domestic violence in every county.

We are going to double the number of places and double the sentences. It is all very welcome. There are 144 specific actions in the plan and €363 million to make sure every single Department, because this is a cross-Government response to domestic violence, has the money and resources needed to make sure the plan is enacted. The Senator also welcomed the 1,000 new college places announced by the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science this morning and the new legislation by the Minister for Health, Deputy Donnelly.

Senators Murphy, Kyne and others talked about what can only be described as the act of terrorism in Kyiv yesterday, where the Russians bombed, maimed and murdered people going about their daily business when buying clothes, food and other items in a shopping centre. They were trying to live their normal lives. I sometimes wonder about the justification of war and the arguments some people or territories and countries put forward to justify that war and, indeed, talk about the rules of engagement and how some things are allowed and some are not. In any circumstances, bombing people who are going about their normal lives in a shopping centre could not be called anything other than terrorism. People in shopping centres going about their business are not what adversaries could describe as strategic sites. I add my words of abhorrence to what can only be described as an act of terror.

Finally, although nobody brought it up today, on behalf of this House but definitely on my own behalf, I thank Mr. Paul Reid, chairperson and CEO of the HSE, for his three and a half years' service, which probably felt like ten years, God love him, and the amount of work and effort he put into running the HSE. He looked after us as a country and made sure the services that needed to be available were available and stood over one of the world-class deliveries of a vaccine, which has kept us mostly safe in this country. I thank him for his public service. I really wish him well. He has seen very little of his beautiful family and his two new grandchildren over recent years. I thank him for his service and wish him every happiness in whatever he chooses to do.

Tréaslaím go mór leis sin. I thank the Leader for her comprehensive response.