Visitors to Tramore, Co Waterford, are being warned not to use inflatable rings or mattresses (lilos) in the sea after a rise in the number of rescue operations off the resort's beach.
Mr Michael Cuddihy, Tramore's beach inspector, said that strong offshore winds meant conditions were very dangerous for children on flotation devices.
Red flags have been raised on the beach in Tramore due to the large number of rescues over the last few days.
"Under normal circumstances, lilos are a good piece of floating fun that children can enjoy but for the past three days we have had an offshore wind on all our south-east coast beaches, which means a lilo can be washed out to sea in a matter of minutes."
He pointed out that those not heeding the warning were placing a huge strain on the rescue services. "On Monday we had somewhere in the region of 15 rescues and the beach guards got so busy that we had to call out the Tramore inshore lifeboat and the RNLI lifeboat.
"We are advising parents not to bring such devices for children to play with in the water. We have people taking tubes from tractor tyres and lorry tyres and blowing them up as flotation devices and these are exceptionally dangerous in the water."