Minister for Justice Helen McEntee has said she had paused decisions on the international protection process for people from Syria because decisions can only be made based on the current situation in that country.
It followed the overthrow by Syrian rebels of President Bashar al-Assad, ending nearly six decades of his family's iron-fisted rule after a lightning advance that reversed the course of a 13-year civil war.
Speaking on her way into today's meeting of Home Affairs ministers in Brussels, Ms McEntee said it would likely not be a long term pause and that it affects a "small number" of people.
"Maybe less than 400, and it's for the reason that any decision can only be made based on the current situation in that country of origin and at the moment that obviously is uncertain," she said.
"That's not a long term pause as far as I'm concerned, but we do need to see how things transpire in the weeks ahead and obviously we'll be coming back to it, to hopefully be able to move past this."
Minister McEntee welcomed the end of the Assad regime, which she said inflicted fear and violence on the Syrian people.
She said Syrians now have an opportunity to set their own future, adding that it was still uncertain as to what that would look like.
The European Commission has said that the decision to return Syrian refugees and asylum seekers is the preserve of individual member states, but that under EU law, return procedures must be based on individual assessments of asylum applications.
Earlier this week, Britain, Germany, France, Italy and several other European countries said they would freeze all pending asylum requests from Syrians.
Under the UNHCR-led refugee resettlement programme, Ireland brought 2,108 Syrian refugees from Lebanon and Jordan to resettle by 2021.
In a further government decision of December 2019, Ireland pledged to welcome up to 2,900 refugees between 2020 and 2023 through resettlement.
While Germany and other governments said they were watching the fast-moving developments in the war-ravaged nation, Austria signalled it would soon deport refugees back to Syria.
