Ireland urgently needs more exorcists to tackle an 'exponential' rise in demand for help with 'demon possession', a Catholic priest has said.

Fr Pat Collins, a leading exorcist, is calling for backup after receiving an 'inordinate number' of calls and emails asking for his servces. He is 'baffled' Church leaders are not doing more and accused them of being 'out of touch with reality' if they do not see the need for more priests to drive out demons.

'It's only in recent years that the demand has risen exponentially,' Fr Collins told the Irish Catholic. 'What I'm finding out desperately, is people who in their own minds believe – rightly or wrongly – that they're afflicted by an evil spirit.'

He continued: 'I think in many cases they wrongly think it, but when they turn to the Church, the Church doesn't know what to do with them and they refer them on either to a psychologist or to somebody that they've heard of that is interested in this form of ministry, and they do fall between the cracks and often are not helped.'

Collins' remarks comes after the International Association of Exorcists (IAE), a group of 400 Catholic leaders and priests, reported a dramatic increase in demonic activity in recent years.

In 2014, the IAE said the levels of demonic activity throughout the world had reached what they considered a 'pastoral emergency.'

In an open letter to the Irish hierarchy, he also said there was growing apostasy within the Church. 'As this has happened, there has been increasing evidence of the malicious activity of the evil one,' he wrote.

'I can't judge from my own subjective experience because people see on the internet that I'm supposed to be an exorcist so I get an inordinate number of calls from people, and emails, all I can say is I have that reputation, but it's only in recent years that the demand has risen exponentially.'

The Church's guidelines recommend that each diocese has at least one priest who is trained to recognise the difference between demonic activity and mental illness.

A spokeswoman for the Catholic Communications Office at Maynooth told the Irish Catholic: 'Exorcisms are very rare and this office has not been made aware of any cases of "exorcism" in Ireland in recent years.'