The entire country is under a hosepipe ban from Friday until the end of August.

Uisce Éireann is extending a Water Conservation Order nationwide to help protect public water supplies for homes, businesses and essential services, following weeks of high temperatures and low rainfall.

The order, which is currently in place in for Dublin, South Tipperary and parts of Kildare, Meath, Wexford and Wicklow, prohibits the use of a hosepipe for activities such as watering a garden, cleaning a privately owned car and filling or maintaining a domestic pond. This excludes fish ponds.

Night-time restrictions are also currently in place on 53 of 700 water supplies, mainly in areas where local sources are under pressure.