Shane Cassells (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I want to pick up on this issue of the online racial abuse suffered by English football players Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka because they missed penalties and which is being targeted at them because of the colour of their skin. This is an issue and a problem for society. There are no borders when it comes to social media, and in particular platforms like Twitter and Facebook, as we saw in February of this year when a teenager in County Kerry racially abused former England star Ian Wright. He was very lucky to escape conviction on that occasion. That was followed by a great tournament, which was sullied last night by that incident with the English players, the storming of Wembley Stadium by ticketless fans, the trashing of the area outside, the booing of the Italian national anthem and a worrying undercurrent. Some expressed wonder that it was great to have fans back in the stadium. Perhaps it was not.

That issue of the racial abuse of sports players also happens in this country, however. We have seen instances where young black men playing GAA and soccer have also been the subject of online abuse, and indeed, abuse in the stands. The point is that in the context of the online safety and media regulation Bill, which is currently at pre-legislative scrutiny stage at committee in these Houses, it is essential that we tackle it.When the representatives from Twitter and Facebook were before the committee, they gave plaudits to us and used fanciful language, but tackling this issue must be done and it must be done collaboratively across many governments. It will not just happen through our own, but we can take a very powerful step in the autumn in these Houses by sending out a statement that it is not acceptable in Ireland and that we will deal with it through the online media Bill and stop the hate that happens to so many of our sporting stars. We stand in solidarity with those three young Englishmen today, because it affects all our sports stars.