A reduction in the number of Catholic priests is being described as a "time bomb" for parishes across the country.
It comes as the numbers retiring outweighs the numbers being ordained.
In the Diocese of Cork and Ross, up to 11 priests are due to retire over the next three years. Nine of the diocese’s 94 serving parish priests are aged over 75.
Michael Kelly, Editor of the Irish Catholic Newspaper, says it has been coming for a while
"We really are facing a time bomb and people have been talking about this for decades now - what we call the vocations crisis. And for a long time people in authority in the church have been saying don't be saying that - that's being overly negative. People like me have been doing the sums for the last 10 or 15 years and say you have maybe 70 or 80 priests retiring in a particular year and only one priest being ordained - you don't have to be a mathematical genius to see that something's got to give there"
