The terrible crimes of Bill Kenneally were those of a predator who, for decades, abused young boys in Waterford city and its surrounding areas. Kenneally was ultimately convicted of some of these appalling sexual crimes. He received total sentences of nearly 19 years and died in prison last month, just over half-way through his term. The report of Mr. Justice Michael White arising from the south east commission of investigation has been presented to the Government and the Oireachtas, and published in full. It makes…

I thank the Deputy for raising this matter. I appreciate that the survivors of the horrific abuse perpetrated by Seán Drummond are in the Gallery today. I was not aware that they would be here today or that the issue would be raised but, notwithstanding that, there is no question that the trauma experienced by them and others as a result of the heinous acts of this individual, Seán Drummond, and indeed many others in previous years in our schools and across other areas of society, has been truly traumatic and has h…

As far as I can see, this is new information in respect of this letter. Was this a confession letter written to the Garda at the time or to whom? I am not sure as to who, but we can discuss that.

I will take this further, and I will examine this. To be fair, I did not anticipate that this would be raised this afternoon, but I certainly will take the issue the Deputy raised in respect of this letter that written by Seán Drummond in the 1970s further and see how best to examine and deal with that. As I said, there is an interdepartmental group, but I will reflect on this and discuss it with the Minister for education and others in respect of this specific case.

The Deputy's portrayal of the Government's position on special education is wrong and does not accord with the facts. We have expanded provision for special education year after year, and we continue to do so, with thousands of more places, hundreds of extra special classes, new special schools, thousands of additional special needs assistants, SNAs, and additional special education teachers. The numbers speak for themselves. It is not credible for the Deputy, notwithstanding the trauma and pressure that parents ar…

Thousands of additional places were secured last year. Where-----

Sorry, I am answering the questions but the Deputy is making false assertions.

The Deputy is.

She keeps with her feigned horror and all the rest of it. It is a feigned kind of presentation.

We are involved with parents. We have all been involved-----

-----in special education.

We know about it. The Deputy is not the only person who knows about special education. We all know about it because we all go about our work. I know about it. I have known it for a long time.

Deputy Cairns made it about me. She made it about us. She made the remarks. It is a serious issue. It was the Deputy who started throwing them out again, not concentrating and focusing on the actual key point.

There is ongoing engagement by the NSCE and the Department with schools and parents. There was a dramatic-----

In the past two years alone, there have been 2,000 additional special classes.

Come on, acknowledge the expansion that has occurred.

The Deputy is incapable of acknowledging it.

I thank the Deputy for raising this issue. The loss of life and the murder and killing of women is shocking. As the Deputy said, a large percentage of women are killed by people known to them. The horrific killings of Jamey Carney and of Adina Raluca Constantin in Portlaoise are quite shocking and the numbers are not going in the right direction in terms of the continued extreme violence that is occurring. There is a societal response required, more generally. Obviously, there will be investigations in respect of t…

Again, I thank the Deputy for raising this. I should have referenced that the Minister for Social Protection, Deputy Dara Calleary, has announced the introduction of domestic violence travel supplement. The Deputy is probably aware of that.

It was announced since the last time the Deputy raised this. That is an important additional measure. Broadly speaking, we have a significant issue more generally in terms of the level and scale of violence and attitudes. In particular, and separate from the murders that occurred, access to violent pornography, for example, by young males is an issue as well, which could be creating an environment that is leading to the kind of shocking levels of violence perpetrated against women. We need to look at this more broa…