Toyota has said it fixed an accelerator defect for some cars in Europe last year but initially decided against a global recall.
'We did fix this in August last year (in Europe) after first hearing about the issue at the end of 2008,' said Toyota spokesman Paul Nolasco.
However, it was initially thought that the problem only affected European right-hand drive vehicles, sold mainly in Ireland and Britain, he said.
The trouble was attributed to the car heater blowing hot air on the accelerator. This caused condensation to build up inside and result in sticking, but was not thought to occur in left-hand drive models, he said.
Toyota's woes are set to deepen this week when the world's largest car maker is expected to pull as many as 300,000 Prius hybrid vehicles because of a separate issue with the braking system.
Mark Teevan of Toyota Ireland says that recall in Japan refers only to the third generation Prius.
Toyota Ireland has sold 58 of the third generation Prius since it was launched in November 2009.
The brake trouble comes on top of recalls of over 8 million vehicles worldwide due to sticking accelerators that have severely tarnished the Japanese giant's reputation for reliability.
