The number of cremations in Ireland is growing. Up to 30 per cent of funerals in Dublin, or about 2,000 services a year, now involve cremations.

There are currently three crematoriums operating in Dublin at Glasnevin, Mount Jerome and Newlands Cross.

The new facility that opened earlier this week in Cork is the fourth in the Republic.

The Dublin Cemetery Group which runs the Glasnevin and Newlands Cross graveyards, plus three others, opened the first crematorium in Ireland in the mid-1980s.

From then there was steady growth in demand for the service, a spokesman for the Dublin Cemetery Group said.

Yet numbers here are still low compared to the rest of Europe where there are many more cremations, he added. In Britain and Australia cremation is chosen in 70 to 85 per cent of cases.

The availability of the service in Dublin has spurred demand for cremations, said Jonathan Stafford, managing director of Staffords Funeral Directors.

In the mid to late-1980s just 10 per cent of Dublin funerals involved cremation, a figure that has tripled to today.

Rising land costs also contribute, given cremation is a far less expensive option.

A typical cremation might cost about €400-€450 (excluding extras), compared to a burial costing €1,500 plus another €700 for opening a grave.

The cremation will cost more if a person wants the urn containing the person's ashes buried in a family plot or placed in a perpetual resting site in the graveyard, a service that typically costs about €400.

Yet cost saving is not the primary reason people chose cremation, said Mr Stafford. Only a small number of people indicate they have selected creation because of cost savings, he said. "I would say this is a factor only in around 10 per cent of the services."

Burial or placement in a perpetual resting site are not automatic choices for those seeing cremation.

A larger proportion keep the ashes in their homes or decide to spread them at sea or places that were special to the deceased. Some have sought to have family ashes spread at the likes of Old Trafford.

Another new service is having the ashes used to produce industrial diamonds.

The carbon-rich ashes are compressed under terrific pressures to generate artificial diamonds that can be worn or displayed at home.