Fire services around the country attended 201 farm building fires in 2022, according to Department of Housing figures.

This represents a 10% increase in farm building fires compared to 2021. In 2022, the largest number of fires occurred in Wicklow (26) followed closely by Kildare (25).

All counties bar Cork (22), Galway (18), Tipperary (13), Clare (12) and Offaly (10) had less than 10 fires.

There were no farm shed fires in Leitrim or Longford, which the fire services had to attend to last year.

In 2021, the largest numberof fires occurred in Cork and Tipperary with 18 fires occurring in each county throughout the year.

Meanwhile, the number of wildfires in 2022, which the Department of Housing categorise as forest, bog or grassland fires, were also up in comparison to the previous year.

There were 2,647 such fires in 2022 compared to 2,158 across the country in 2021.

Cork City Council and Cork County Council combined recorded the largest number of wildfires last year with 546 in total – compared to 437 in 2021.

The only other county with over 300 fires in 2022 was Dublin with 307 fires.

Waterford was the next hotspot, with 228 fires, followed closely by Wicklow with 202. Counties which recorded over 100 fires in 2022 included Galway (167), Kerry (116), Wexford (112), Kildare (109) and Carlow (102).