Malcolm Byrne (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Acting Leader will be aware that today is International Day against Homophobia, Biphobia and Transphobia. We have made enormous progress in tackling homophobia. It was particularly welcome to hear overnight of Blackpool's Jake Daniels becoming the first professional football player in England to come out in 32 years. It was a very brave move, given the context. He is a young man who should be saluted for his bravery and honesty. At a meeting of the Joint Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media last week, we heard about the work being done by national governing bodies and the Federation of Irish Sport to tackle discrimination, homophobia and racism within sport. Unfortunately, we know, in particular in the online space, a hell of a lot more needs to be done. On this day, it is important that the Houses and Ireland, as a republic, continue to stress the importance of solidarity with all of our citizens and insist that everybody in the State be treated equally.

I also wish to raise the question of the regulation of jet skis. Those who, like me, come from coastal areas will understand that as we come into the summer this continues to be a problem. There can be by-laws, but the difficulty is often with enforcement. Last year, five key bodies - Water Safety Ireland, Irish Sailing, Waterways Ireland, the RNLI and the Coast Guard - came together and made an appeal to get jet ski users to try to be responsible and not go into swimming areas in order to avoid potential incidents, something we see every summer.This issue has been raised with me by some organisations based locally in the Wexford area. Councillor Joe Sullivan also regularly raises this issue as a matter of concern. We must examine how the existing regulations can be enforced. There is no point in having bylaws. The Acting Leader is close enough to the coast to know the importance of addressing this problem. Therefore, I ask that we examine ways of ensuring that our beaches and coastal communities are safe and that if we have regulations and bylaws, that mechanisms are put in place to ensure they are enforced.