A shortage of priests may force Ireland to adopt the English-model of people waiting weeks for a funeral service.
The Association of Catholic Priests says the declining number of clergy has already forced the Dublin Archdiocese to train parishioners to help priests.
It's pointing to the lack of men entering the priesthood and the increasing age of priests as the main factors.
Fr. Tim Hazelwood from the Diocese of Cloyne outlines the scale of the issue:
"We have 49 parishes; we have two seminarians in total. Dublin diocese - I know they've amalgamated parishes lately now, but there were 199 parishes. But for all of Dublin there's one seminarian. You wouldn't want to be Einstein to see that it won't be possible for the service that's provided at presents to continue. I think something like the English kind of model, where if somebody dies, people will have to wait until there is a priest available".
