On Saturday last in Cavan, the first Pride march was held in the county town. I congratulate those who organised it and took part. It was a very colourful and vibrant celebration of people from the LGBT+ community. I put up an ad online beforehand wishing it well. The commentary on that ad was absolutely vile. Laura, in my office, turned off the comments. It is absolutely outrageous what people feel they can say to others online.

After the parade, I attended Cavan's Africa Day. Nationally, Africa Day was celebrated in May, but in Cavan, they had the celebration last Saturday. It was another celebratory event full of music, song, colour and vibrancy. It celebrated the diverse cultures within Africa and their contribution to our country. It was attended by people from this country and other countries outside of Africa. Again, there were concerns about that event and advertising it too much in case of the backlash they would get on social media and an expectation of a backlash when the reports go into the local paper. I wish to say to both communities, and indeed many other minority communities who suffer this on a regular basis, that it is a minority of people who do this. The majority of people do not think like that. I ask them to remember that some of the people who are putting up comments do not even live in this country. Some of them are not even people; they are bots. It is vile and outrageous that social media companies are not doing more about this spread of hate. It is something that is being pushed by right-wing agendas, both nationally in this country and internationally and it just needs to stop. More people need to stand up and call it out for what it is, which is pure racism and homophobia. That is not representative of the majority of the people of this country.