The LÉ Samuel Beckett has rescued 242 people from a wooden barge off the coast of the Libyan capital Tripoli.
In its first rescue operation since its deployment to the Mediterranean, LÉ Samuel Beckett, working alongside the Royal Navy's HMS Enterprise, brought 237 men and five women on board after the wooden craft was located at 8am about 80km north of Tripoli.
LÉ Samuel Beckett was deployed to the Mediterranean on 25 September.
Previously the LÉ Eithne and LÉ Niamh rescued 7,397 people during their deployments to the region.
Separately, Germany could receive up to 1.5 million asylum seekers this year, according to the country’s Bild newspaper.
The figures come from a confidential document containing estimates that are far higher than publicly released official figures, the newspaper revealed.
German authorities have so far predicted that Europe's top economy would record between 800,000 and one million new arrivals in 2015.
However, Bild quoted the document saying the authorities were now expecting to receive 920,000 new arrivals in the coming three months alone, bringing the total number of asylum seekers this year to 1.5 million.
"The migratory pressure will increase. For the fourth quarter, we expect between 7,000 and 10,000 illegal entries a day," according to extracts from the document.
"The significant number of asylum seekers risks becoming an extreme burden for the regions and communes," added the document.
The newspaper also quoted the document estimating that each asylum seeker who successfully obtained refugee status could bring on average "four to eight" family members to Germany.
On the basis of the preliminary forecast of 920,000 migrants, some "7.36 million people" could therefore have the right to move to Germany due to family ties.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been lauded worldwide for her decision to open Germany's doors to refugees fleeing war and misery.
But within Germany, her popularity is starting to wane as local authorities struggle to cope with the massive task of hosting the record surge in refugees.
German Interior Ministry Spokesman Harald Neymanns would not confirm the figures. He noted that the onset of winter could slow the surge in arrivals as shown in previous years.
"We are still expecting the migration pressure to drop in the winter months," Mr Neymanns said.
Government spokesman Georg Streiter said he was not aware of the document's existence.
Meanwhile, Sinn Féin MLA Martin McGuinness said todayaround 50-100 Syrian refugees will arrive in Northern Ireland in December.
