About half of the two billion coins minted in recent years have disappeared, according to the Central Bank. Retailers say this is causing a shortage.
The number of coins minted and put into circulation has been rising over recent years. In 1999, the number of coins produced was 236 million; in 1998 it was 184 million.
This represents a rise of about 30 per cent.
Yet, according to the Central Bank, coins are in short supply because consumers are "hoarding" coins which are heavy and cumbersome and have consistently been devalued.
In addition, the bank says, visitors to the State take coins home with them.
Mr Neil Whorisky of the Central Bank said they were concentrating on the production of euro coins, due to go into circulation in 2002. But he said the bank was still minting Irish coins and would continue to do so as long as there was a demand.
He said that as euro coins were the main priority now, they might have to subcontract the production of Irish coins to suppliers in Europe. The Central Bank must produce 950 million euros before 2002.
Neither the Central Bank nor the banks are open to the idea of providing incentives for people to bring coins in for exchange.
Mr Whorisky said: "As a public sector organisation, we don't have the room to be offering incentives. If we issue £1 for 99p, that one penny will have to be accounted for."
However, the Central Bank is exploring its options as to what it can do to dislodge hoarded coins, he said.
Mr Turlough Crowe, of Allied Irish Banks, said that incentives could be "dangerous" and "counter-productive".
He said that if incentives were offered, especially at certain times of the year when stocks of coins were low, people might hold onto coins until then to make a profit.
AIB, he said, would not be introducing any measures to get coins back into circulation "until we talked to our colleagues in the Central Bank and the whole industry."
Bank of Ireland also said it was not in favour of introducing incentives for coin returns.
Mr Dermot Jewell, of the Consumers Association, said he did not understand how that issue was solely a consumer problem. "Some coins are being held but there is only a small amount of hoarding."
He added that consumers were losing out as they were being short-changed at cash registers. On occasion he had personally found some shops unable to give change of one or two pence, as they had run out of the smaller denominations.
A campaign to explain to consumers that there was a shortage of coins would be the best way to get them back into circulation, he argued. There needed to be some form of education, to explain to people that there was a problem and to bring in the coins.
According to the Dublin City Centre Business Association, businesses all over Ireland are having problems with coin shortages.
Mr Tony Coffey, chief executive, said that many of their members had businesses in other parts of Ireland and had such difficulties. He denied there was any rounding-off of prices by retailers to reduce the need for smaller coins.
Dunnes Stores said they had experienced "severe difficulties" with coin shortages, in particular at Christmas, when they lacked £1 coins.
Tesco Ireland and Penneys said they also experienced coin shortages, but added that customers were not being short-changed.
It is expected that the euro's introduction might reduce the incidence of coin shortage as it will be legal tender in other European countries.
There will be a maximum six months at the start of 2002 during which people will be able to exchange Irish money for euros, but this may be reduced to two or three months. After that, while people will be able to exchange Irish notes in banks for euros, they will not be able to exchange Irish coins.
The Central Bank has said that it will not be making money on this as it incurs costs on the production of coins.