Anybody hoping to fly off on a sun holiday to escape the wet summer can forget about it. Most travel agents are booked out and the soonest you will be able to see a sun-drenched beach will be September or October.

In fact most summer holidays were booked six months ago, according to travel agents. Ms Niamh Hayes, marketing manager of Budget Travel, said: "In terms of availability for July and August, there is very little left.

"We are 98 per cent booked for the summer, and what is left now is September and October. We knew at the end of January it was going to be a big season because we received 70 per cent bookings then."

She said the economy was doing well, there was high spending and a "feel-good factor" was evident. People were confident and felt they could book holidays six months in advance. This had been the trend for the past two years.

"The weather conditions are now encouraging people to go abroad. We have had a huge number of inquiries. People want to go on waiting lists . . . People are coming in regularly looking for the last available seats. There are some seats left, but it is tiny."

Mr John Power, chief executive of the Irish Hotels Federation, said the season was "very mixed" with some members saying they were doing well but others concerned. Those doing well would have a "strong brand" and be weather-insulated.

Those concerned would be small operators dependent on the domestic market. Those not doing well believed it was largely weather-related. The World Cup also had something to do with it.

However, May had been good, and there was hope that there would be a change in the weather and the end of July and August might bring a pick-up.

"We would be putting our heads in the sand if we said the weather wasn't having an effect. The concern has been in the domestic sector, the walk-in type of business," he said.

Mr John Brown, of Bord Failte, said that while the weather had been a factor in a fall in domestic tourism, there was confidence that targets in the industry would be met. He did not subscribe to stories about the season being a "wash-out".

They had anticipated that the World Cup would have an effect for four weeks, and there had been recent problems with the weather, but overall they were expecting yearly tourism figures to be good.

A survey showed that 80 per cent of respondents were experiencing an increase in their business up to mid-June. Almost 60 per cent were also experiencing forward bookings which showed an increase on 1997.

There had been a decade of record tourism in this State, and "the graph was like a rocket." He was confident that this year would also be good. He accepted that the weather had been indifferent in the last six weeks and that it was having an effect.

Met Eireann said that June was the wettest and dullest for many years. Rainfall for the midlands was more than three times the normal for June. So far July has been drier than average but remarkable for its lack of sunshine.

Normally, there are a few weeks of good weather in the summer because of high pressure from the Azores. So far this has failed to materialise. Instead, the country has been hit by a series of depressions from the Atlantic.