In the past five years 34 cases of Legionnaires' disease have been reported in Ireland.
Eight cases have been detected this year, some of which were acquired abroad. There have been no deaths.
In 2005 nine cases were notified. Two of the people involved were residents of a long-stay unit for the intellectually disabled at Stewarts Hospital in Palmerstown, Dublin, one of whom died.
Legionnaires' bacteria were also discovered in the water system at Letterkenny General Hospital, Co Donegal, in November 2005. No staff or patients were infected.
In 2004 four cases of the disease were found, while in 2003 seven cases were detected. These included a mother of seven who died of the disease. She was diagnosed while a patient in Waterford Regional Hospital. She contracted the disease from a showerhead.
A 69-year-old Dublin man also died of the condition in 2003, after inhaling water vapour while testing the temperature of a hot tub. He was viewing a house for sale at the time.
In 2002 a total of six cases were found including two in Galway - a man and a woman who both recovered.