Michael Mullins (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Like other colleagues in the House, I was honoured this afternoon to stand with members of the Bosnian community in Ireland in a very dignified ceremony to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the genocide in Srebrenica. The killing of more than 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in July 1995 marked one of the darkest days in the troubled conflict that engulfed the former Yugoslavia. It was one of the worst atrocities to take place in Europe since the Second World War and was very much a failure of the international community to prevent the genocide from taking place. Mr. Mirza atibuši from Bosnia spoke very movingly and warned us of the dangers of a repeat if the international community failed to act on some of the awful things happening in the world today. I hope that in the next term we will have a discussion with the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade on the situation in Syria and other conflicts throughout the world. The official ceremony to mark the genocide in Srebrenica will take place on Saturday, 11 July. I am pleased that Ireland's ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Mr. Patrick Kelly, will represent the Government at the ceremony. As has been said, today also marks the tenth anniversary of the appalling terrorist attack in London in which 52 people were killed and more than 700 were injured.

I join Senator Jim D'Arcy in very much welcoming the announcement that an additional 610 special needs assistants, SNAs, will be provided. The decision was sanctioned at today's Cabinet meeting. It will mean that every child with an assessed need will have access to an SNA. From September, there will be 11,820 whole-time SNA posts in primary and post-primary schools, an 11.7% increase since the Government took office.