The Bishop of Kildare has said the housing crisis is partly to blame for the falling number of weddings in Ireland. 

Last year, there were 19,898 weddings in Ireland - a 9.7% drop since 2015 when there were 22,025. 

It is, Bishop Denis Nulty believes, a “worrying trend” and he is in doubt as to the main culprit, describing the cost of housing as the “biggest obstacle” to young couples. 

On Lunchtime Live, broadcaster Fionnuala Moran said she and her husband felt it was far more logical to prioritise a home over a wedding. 

“I wouldn't have gone near the wedding until we had the house bought,” she explained.

“In many ways now, I feel like the mortgage is the millennial marriage - like, it's a far longer term commitment.

“I just think it's such a tricky, tricky expense to justify if you don't have that space to live together first.”

A bride at her wedding. Picture by: Aleksei Gorodenkov / Alamy.

Ms Moran added while the cost of housing is never far from the headlines, it is worth remembering that the cost of weddings have also surged in recent years as well. 

“A massive big party that you get to enjoy for a day or two, whatever way you do it, that's going to set you back, I think the average is about 35k, 40k in Ireland?” she said. 

“It's so steep, I couldn't imagine going for that without having a house locked in, just when the bank are going to be looking at all of your expenses. 

“And weddings do drive us deranged in our expenditure, even if we're trying to keep it on the straight and narrow.”

A couple at their wedding. Picture by: Alamy.com.

Ms Moran continued that declining marriage rates do not mean young people don’t want to get married, it just means they have chosen to prioritise other things. 

“It's a lovely extra when you're that little bit more settled, I think, to have the big party, have the big celebration, bring everyone together and just enjoy your love story,” she said. 

“But just before we had our own space to be doing that in, it wouldn't have been something that we would have looked at at all.”

Main image: A couple getting engaged. Picture by: Alamy.com.