A politician has hit out at cruel and nasty comments on social media.
They appeared in the wake of a week of tragedy on Irish roads.
Kerry County Councillor Jackie Healy-Rae is unhappy with them.
He says a number of comments under online news articles about road deaths are vile and unnecessary.
Cllr Healy-Rae lost his 14-year-old relative, who died in a crash last week.
Jackie says these comments are vilifying people.
While he says they're adding to the devastation felt by mourning families.
He says the Government should appoint a dedicated minister for social media due to the lack of such laws in Ireland.
We’ve unfortunately lost a lot of young lives this week, some of the comments under the new articles online are disgraceful, unnecessary and ignorant. Their families and friends are grieving, why some people feel the need to add to that pain by being horrible is beyond me.
— Jackie Healy-Rae (@Jackie_HealyRae) July 9, 2021
Healy Rae: "It's Not Acceptable"
Jackie Healy-Rae, who has experienced social media abuse himself, told Radio Kerry action needs to be taken to tackle the issue:
"For people to come along and think it's acceptable to post the most vile commentary online."
"Have we no compassion?"
"What has gone wrong with the world?"
"Where we think we can say what we like behind the screen, and it won't hurt anybody."
"Or that those affected aren't going to see it."
"It's simply not acceptable, it's about time we stopped talking and took action."
"If we don't take action then it's not going to stop."
