The Irish Kidney Association has said that kidney donations from "altruistic" living donors to strangers should be accepted here.
Chief Executive of the Irish Kidney Association Mark Murphy said he knew of no legal impediment to this and that the system operates in the UK.
He said that up to 10 living kidney transplants are now being lost each year while the wait goes on for the new Human Tissue Bill to be passed.
New figures released in advance of Organ Donor Awareness Week show that the number of organ donors and transplants fell last year.
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There were 274 organ transplants last year, down by over 11% on the the previous year.
Also, for the first time in a decade, the number of living donor kidney transplants did not grow and dropped from 51 to 40 last year.
Mr Murphy said it was always going to be a difficult task to follow on from the record-breaking organ donor and transplantation year of 2017.
The Department of Health has said that altruistic kidney donation involves major surgery for the donor, with no physical benefit to them.
It said that this is a complex area, which requires assurances that the donor is making an informed and voluntary decision, free from duress and coercion.
It added that the development of such a programme will occur under the protection of a robust legislative framework.
Proposed legislation is being finalised and will be submitted to Government shortly.
The Irish Kidney Association said that in the last decade there have been extremes of low numbers and high numbers of deceased donors (58 in 2010) to 99 in 2017.
An average year sees 81 deceased organ donors.
This year's organ donor awareness week begins on 1 April.
