Higher Education Minister Simon Harris has said the tragedy in Donegal has created a sense of 'numbed grief' across the entire country.
He was speaking as more funeral details have been announced.
The funerals of Jessica Gallagher (24) and Martin McGill (29) will take place in Creeslough on Tuesday.
James O'Flaherty (48) - originally from Sydney, Australia - will be laid to rest on Wednesday in Derrybeg.
They were three of the 10 people killed following an explosion at a petrol station on Friday.
Top row, left to right: Leona Harper, Jessica Gallagher, James O'Flaherty, Robert Garwe, Shauna Flanagan Garwe. Bottom row, left to right: Catherine O'Donnell, James Monaghan, Martina Martin, Hugh Kelly, Martin McGillMinister Harris told Newstalk Breakfast the people of Creeslough will need support in the days, and years, ahead.
"Our thoughts and prayers are absolutely with everyone in Creeslough; everyone in Donegal and not just today – our support will have to be there in the weeks, the months and the years ahead.
"This is a generational trauma that has visited a small, close-knit community but has reverberated right across our country.
"That awful hackneyed phrase that 'there are no words', but there genuinely are no words".
People along the side of the road with candles pay their respects to those killed in Co Donegal. Picture by: Barry Whyte/NewstalkHe said he keeps thinking about the younger victims, in particular.
"I think the country is genuinely numbed, there's just this great sense of numbed grief right across our country today," he said.
"I keep on thinking about little Shauna, and the pictures that we've all now seen of her, five years of age.
"[Going] into a petrol station in a shop to buy her mum a birthday cake, or Jessica who was 24 and due to start a new job today in Belfast.
"These were beautiful, ordinary people going about their everyday lives in a way that any of us can imagine being in that scenario.
"I think the whole country is genuinely, utterly devastated."
