There's been a sharp increase in the smuggling of cannabis by post into the country this year.

Figures obtained by The Irish Times show authorities have seized 799 postal packages containing cannabis.

The packages were worth just under 5 million euro.

In 2020, a record 3,703 postal packages of cannabis, worth 3.7 million euro, were intercepted, while 4,789 packages worth 9.1 million euro were detected the following year.