The Government repatriated some 520 eastern European migrants this year under a scheme aimed at assisting destitute immigrants.
The figures, which have climbed rapidly in recent years, come at a time when homeless agencies are expressing concern at the number of EU immigrants experiencing hardship.
A number of Romanian families who were camped on a roundabout near Ballymun, just off Dublin's M50 motorway, were among the most high-profile of groups repatriated.
However, many more destitute families and individuals from other new EU states are not eligible for social assistance payments as a result of restrictions aimed at preventing "welfare tourism".
Department of Justice figures requested by The Irish Times show the majority of immigrants who were assisted in returning home were Poles (171), followed by Romanians (141), Slovakians (60), Latvians (38) and Lithuanians (31).
The only form of social assistance that newly-arrived migrants are automatically entitled to is free repatriation to their country of origin. The numbers availing of the repatriation scheme have climbed dramatically since the 10 former accession states joined the EU in May 2004.
The Reception and Integration Agency (RIA), which operates under the Department of Justice, says it repatriated 149 destitute EU migrants in 2004, 318 in 2005 and 646 last year.
The scheme is open to any citizen of a former EU accession state and certain other "special-case" EU nationals who find themselves destitute during their time in Ireland. The repatriations are estimated to have cost the State about €250,000 last year.
Research by the Dublin-based Homeless Agency, to be published shortly, will show that large numbers of people from EU accession states are using homeless services.
Over a week-long period in December of last year it found that 283 so-called "EU10" nationals were using homeless services, while almost 60 were living in squats, sleeping rough or staying in homeless accommodation.
Campaign groups such as the Crosscare Migrant Project say immigrants tend to experience hardship for a range of reasons such as having inadequate savings, poor English language skills or are exploited by Irish employers.