Met Éireann has warned of worsening drought conditions as fire fighters battle a major gorse fire on the Slieve Bloom Mountains in Laois and Offaly.
Laois and Offaly fire fighters have been battling the blaze with the help of staff from Coillte since yesterday.
A helicopter was deployed to drop water from a nearby lake.
Coillte has said that it is fighting a number of fires nationwide, and it urged the public to be extra vigilant towards the dangers of wildfires.
Temperatures are expected to rise to mid-to-high 20s from Saturday onwards.
Met Éireann’s Evelyn Cusack says the warm weather will continue into next week pic.twitter.com/3LKC0vS20Z — RTÉ News (@rtenews) July 5, 2018 It comes after Irish Water announced a nationwide hosepipe ban will come into effect from 8am tomorrow and will remain in place until midnight on 31 July.
Despite efforts to conserve water during the continuing hot spell, Lidl says that its 7,500 litre swimming pools have sold out due to "unprecedented" demand.
The pools went on sale this morning despite calls for the store to pull the pools from sale to help conserve water during the drought.
The call was made prior to the announcement of the national hosepipe ban.
Read: What is prohibited during the hosepipe ban?