Gardaí in Wicklow are carrying out air patrols... to combat Christmas tree thieves.

Most of Ireland's Christmas tree farms are in Wicklow. This year, security personnel, motion detectors, and hidden cameras have been brought by the farms to help protect against thefts.

Meanwhile gardaí in the county are participating in 'Operation Hurdle', focused on preventing crimes in Wicklow's uplands area.

They say that they are using air units to cover large areas of ground to try to spot potential tree thieves.

Stolen trees are usually sold on for around €50 each during the busy holiday period.

Irish Christmas tree growers are this year cutting down and distributing 550,000 trees.

350,000 of them will be sold to the domestic market - the remaining 200,000 will be exported to European markets, including the UK, Germany and France.

The overall industry is said to be worth €21m to the Irish economy.