Women asylum-seekers have been travelling to the UK for a number of years for abortions, and been allowed to re-enter the State, according to the director of the Irish Refugee Council.
Mr Peter O'Mahony told The Irish Times that he was aware of a small number of cases where this happened going back to 1997 or 1998.
He was also aware of other instances of asylum-seekers, whose claims for asylum were still being processed, being allowed leave the State for other compelling reasons, and return.
However, he said there were also examples of people being afraid to leave the State for exceptional reasons, in case they would not be allowed re-enter.
"There is some provision for exceptional travel - for health reasons, for the health of siblings or the health of parents," he said.
"But not all asylum-seekers would be aware they have that option. We have found that when it arose it was dealt with fairly humanely by the Department (of Justice)."
It emerged over the weekend, in a report in the Sunday Business Post, that the Attorney General had advised the Department of Justice that under the Geneva Convention, the Department had to "give sympathetic consideration to requests from asylum-seekers for a travel document to enable them to travel while pursuing their claims."
In a statement the Department said: "According to the advice received, the fact that a person intends to travel in order to obtain an abortion would not in itself be sufficient reason to refuse a request to travel.
"To refuse under such circumstances would have the effect of impeding normal freedom to travel. Therefore there has been consent to a small number of requests in this instance."
It is understood that the State was not involved in any expenditure relating to these journeys.
According to legal experts, it would be unlikely that the State could sustain a refusal of such a request if it was challenged in the courts.
The Constitution guarantees freedom to travel for an abortion, and this, combined with the provisions of the Geneva Convention, which the State has signed, would make such a refusal difficult to defend legally.
Following a ruling against Ireland in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 1992, Article 40.3.3 of the Constitution, which acknowledges the right to life of the unborn, was amended to state: "The subsection shall not limit freedom to travel between the State and another state."