While bishops admitted last night that the crisis in vocations posed difficulties, the hierarchy said it had no plans for lay-led services on Sundays.
However, such services are taking place during the week.
Bishops have been discussing laity-led weekday liturgy when it is not possible for a priest to say a Mass.
It has long been evident that the church is facing a decline in the numbers entering the seminary and an ageing population of priests. Just 14 ordinations took place in the Dublin Archdiocese in the last decade.
Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois Colm O'Reilly told the Irish Independent that discussions were continually taking place between bishops as they shared experiences on how to deal with the issue.
"In almost all our parishes (in the diocese) there is a resident priest. It's not imminent yet, but it's a concern," Bishop O'Reilly said.
He said there are approximately 60 priests in his diocese catering for a population of about 70,000. This has dropped from about 80 priests over the last 30 years.
"We're not approaching it (the issue) on a national basis. We haven't looked at it in terms of how we resolve it as a country as a whole. The ball is in the court of each individual bishop to resolve it. It's exchanging methodologies and learning from each other all the time."
The Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin which -- like many other dioceses -- has been forced to introduce measures such as the clustering of parishes, has lay people in pastoral leadership roles.
It also holds a lay-lead service on Monday mornings in Bagenalstown parish.
Fr Paddy Byrne, who recently left Bagenalstown for Portlaoise, said the vocation shortage provided an opportunity for the church to engage with lay leadership. He also spoke of the greater demand placed on priests as numbers decline.
Reality
"Do we embrace this as an opportunity and run with the reality that there are much fewer priests?" he asked.
The Catholic Communications Office could not say how widespread lay-led services were, as each of the 26 dioceses were "administratively autonomous".
"They are taking place," a spokesman said.
But he added that there were no plans for lay-led services on Sundays.
"Over the last number of years, in relation to weekday liturgy when Mass is not celebrated, bishops have been discussing this important issue," a spokesman said. "In these discussions, there is a distinction between the centrality of the celebration of the Eucharist on a Sunday, and Eucharist celebrated on a weekday."
Bishop Leo O'Reilly, of the Diocese of Kilmore, said it was not an immediate problem, but one that posed a concern for the future.
"There is a shortage of vocations, there's no doubt," he said. "Obviously in the situation such as there was no priest available on a Sunday, you'd have to have something like that. But I don't think it's ideal. I certainly wouldn't be too happy if we hadn't enough priests to provide Sunday Eucharist for our parishioners."