James Cox

Ireland could get cooler, wetter and stormier due to climate change.

A new report into Ireland's ocean climate found the Gulf Stream, which gives Ireland its temperate climate, could decrease by 30 per cent.

The research warns the country will still experience other consequences of a warming planet, with sea levels rising between 2 and 3 millimetres per year since the 1990s.

Co-author of that report, Dr Gerard McCarthy, said Irish waters are attracting fish that thrive in colder water.

Dr McCarthy told Newstalk radio: "We also see things like blue whiting. Blue whiting is a small but mid-water column fish... a little like the mackerel or herring... and we've seen an increase in those close to the Irish shore.

"This is consistent with a cooling and a freshening in the North Atlantic, so these climatic effects are visible in the ecosystem as well."