Visitors planning a trip to Co Kildare to an international scouting event today have been asked not to travel, after the planned day out was called off due to unrelenting wet weather.
The visitor day that was to be part of the International Scouting Jamboree at Punchestown racecourse has been cancelled due to "current and forecasted" weather conditions, a Garda statement said.
Gardaí asked visitors intending to travel to the event not to do so but said other events scheduled during the jamboree will take place as scheduled.
Some 12,500 scouts have set up camp at Punchestown for the week to celebrate the centenary of the scouting movement in Ireland. Young people from Ireland, England, Sweden, the Philippines, the US and other countries are attending.
Some 10,000 Irish scouts aged between 10 and 18, as well as 2,500 overseas guests and over 500 organisers, are taking part in the event.
Today's visitor day was an invitation-only event.
The miserable August weather appears set to "stop play" throughout the country for the rest of the week.
Met Éireann warned of the risk of localised flooding in parts of the east and south today.
All parts of the country will experience serious rainfall, according to David Rogers of Met Éireann. He said, however, it was hard to pinpoint where flooding is likely to take place if it does at all.
There is also a risk of isolated thunder, although temperatures will remain mild at between 17 and 21 degrees.
Tomorrow will start off gloomy and there will be rain in some areas in the morning and early afternoon. It should brighten up later and many places will become dry by tomorrow evening, Mr Rogers said.
There is further bad news on the horizon, however, with a lot of rain forecast for Friday night and the first half of Saturday.
Sunday will not be such a bad day overall, but there will be showers concentrated in the west of the country. The first half of next week will also remain unsettled.
The cause of the current wet spell is low pressure in the atmosphere close to Ireland. But Mr Rogers insisted the weather so far this year has not been as bad as last year, at least "certainly not through the first half of June".
Residents of Newcastlewest, Co Limerick and Mallow, Co Cork, were continuing a clean-up this week after severe flooding last Thursday and Friday. Newcastlewest experienced the equivalent of a month's rain in just five hours on Thursday.
Rainfall last month was heavier than normal in most parts of the country and Cork airport recorded the highest July rainfall in 33 years. The combined total for rainfall recorded there for June and July was more than twice the normal rainfall for those months, according to Met Éireann figures.
AA Roadwatch said today that driving conditions were poor throughout the country, with a lot of surface water on roads. The motoring organisation urged motorists to drive with care, to maintain a safe distance from vehicles in front and to use dipped headlights.