Three of the country’s main water safety bodies say there has been a major rise in incidents during the current warm weather.

The Irish Coast Guard, the RNLI and Irish Water Safety are warning people to exercise caution in or around water.

The Coast Guard has said there were 23 maritime incidents on Sunday alone.

The groups say their message is particularly targeted at young people.

Roger Sweeney of Irish Water Safety says people taking a dip to cool off, are often unaware of the dangers: “We average 11 drownings in Ireland every month, that’s 135 every year and the risk of drowning increases of course during warmer weather when people take to water activities, possibly for the very first time this year.”