The weather this week will be changeable, with showers and sunny periods, according to Met Eireann.

There will be scattered showers today (Monday) and these showers will become more frequent and heavy by this afternoon, it says.

Later today a band of heavier showery rain will spread eastwards across the country and there will be highest temperatures of 13 to 15 degrees, Met Eireann says.

Showers will continue early tonight, it says, but they will die out later with good clear spells developing and there will be lowest temperatures of 6 to 8 degrees with northwesterly winds.

Current indications from Met Eireann suggest that the weather for the Ploughing will be unsettled.

There will be good dry and sunny periods tomorrow (Tuesday) with just the occasional shower, it says and there will be highest temperatures of 13 to 14 degrees.

Looking to Wednesday, it says there will be a dry start to the day but rain will spread eastwards through the morning/early afternoon.

There will be heavy showers overnight on Wednesday especially in the west of the country, Met Eireann says.

Thursday will be a cool and blustery day will heavy showers, it says and there will be highest temperatures of 12 to 14 degrees in strong westerly winds, it says.

Met Eireann says that on Friday showers will be more scattered with longer bright and sunny spells and it will be less windy.

The outlook for the weekend is that there will be a good deal of dry weather with temperatures improving to around 16 or 17 degrees.

However, it says there will be patchy rain at times near western coastal counties.