Melanoma skin cancer has more than doubled in Ireland, with the incidence of the disease increasing by 67% in just 10 years, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

The latest data from the National Cancer Registry shows that there were 598 new cases of malignant melanoma in Ireland in 2005, compared with 358 in 1995. There was also a 21% increase in non-melanoma skin cancer in the same time period, with 6,284 new cases in Ireland in 2005.

"The difficulty with the figures is judging how much represents an increase in detection, and how much is an increase in incidence," said Dr Harry Comber, director of the National Cancer Registry. "But there is a general consensus that skin cancer has increased here."

The figures represent a worrying upward trend in the same week that a major scientific study found that Ireland's climate will possibly be four degrees warmer by the end of this century.

However, there is also evidence that Irish people are beginning to be more aware of the dangers of over-exposure to the sun. Despite the extremely hot weather over the last few weeks, hospital A&E departments report there has been a drop in the numbers of children presenting with serious sunburn.

"We've actually seen much less than we would have expected, considering the super weather we've been having," said Dr Peter Keenan, a consultant from Temple Street Children's Hospital. "I think there would have been maybe less than half a dozen in the last month, and none of those cases required admission. It's certainly nothing as bad as previous years, even though the weather has been better."

Dr Chris Luke from Cork University Hospital also reported a very small number of children presenting to the hospital with sunburn, although he noted that the numbers of badly sunburnt adults was still high.

In the Adelaide and Meath Hospital in Tallaght, the figures were slightly higher, with consultants estimating that around 10 children had presented with sunburn in the last month.

"Generally, the children have been burnt on their hands, faces, neck and ears," said Dr Ciara Martin. "You know, the places that people just forget about. Some of the children had been abroad on holidays, and some had just been out in the good weather here. In some cases, the children had had no sun protection on, and others had been in the water and it had worn off. But for the most part there were no really serious cases."

Irish sunbed providers also appear to have taken a tougher line in implementing strict age policies for sunbed users. Three years ago, the Sunday Tribune found that one in four salons were willing to allow a 14-year-old girl to book a sunbed session. However, when this newspaper conducted a similar survey last week, all of the salons contacted said that they would not allow someone of that age to use the sunbed.

Although the decision to implement an age policy is currently at the discretion of individual sunbed providers, there is new legislation in the pipeline that proposes to ban the use of sunbeds for under-18s.