A total of 6,217 women who provided an Irish address had abortions in the UK last year, according to figures released today by the British Health ministry.
This represents a decrease of 1.7 per cent over the previous year and the third year in a row a fall has been recorded.
The CEO of the Irish Family Planning Association, Niall Behan, said he welcomed "the small drop in the numbers" but he added "it doesn't tell the whole story".
Mr Behan said the IFPA felt that with the number of cheap flights available and cheaper termination offered in countries such as Spain, France, the Netherlands and Belgium many Irish women were going to mainland Europe for abortions.
The IFPA's Director of Counselling Services, Rosie Toner, added: "There is a real need for Irish statistics on abortion, which indicate the number of women who access termination services within the EU, America and Russia, which are all locations that Irish women have been reported to travel to for abortions.
"Unless we can develop a real picture of the numbers of women travelling for abortion services, we will not be in a position to develop strategies and services that deal with the needs of women."
"The Minister for Health and Children, Mary Harney should start taking some political leadership on the issue of abortion, as so far in her Ministry she has completely avoided the issue," Ms Toner added.
Meanwhile, Geraldine Martin of the Pro-Life Campaign while welcoming the decrease in numbers said "abortion figures remain tragically high".
The figures also showed 1,280 women from Northern Ireland travelled to the Britain last year to have an abortion.