About 200 Irish people died abroad last year, an increase of one third on the previous year, Department of Foreign Affairs figures show.
The consular division was notified of 200 deaths in 2008, compared with 150 in 2007.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheal Martin said the rise in the number of deaths overseas was causing ?particular concern?, especially those involving accidents to young people, including motor accidents and drowning.
?Each one of these cases involves a tragedy to a family in Ireland which was sometimes exacerbated by long bureaucratic delays in releasing bodies to the families,? he said.
?My department does everything in its power to assist Irish families who find themselves in this unfortunate position.?
Mr Martin said that while the ?vast bulk? of overseas visits were accident free, he wanted to do everything he could to cut down on the number of Irish families who receive tragic news from abroad.
?I can assure every Irish citizen we will do everything we can to assist you. However, the Department?s assistance cannot replace the need for the purchase of private and comprehensive medical and travel cover.
?I strongly recommend all travelers obtain appropriate cover in order to avoid the burden placed on families in the unfortunate event of an incident abroad.?
Mr Martin urged Irish citizens to use his department?s travel registration service, particularly those traveling to remote or ?challenging? locations.
?In particular, the recent protests in Bangkok proved the value of registration. Most of the Irish citizens stranded in Bangkok were passing through, many of their way to or from Australia. These were scattered throughout the city and surrounding areas,? he said.
?Under the old system, it would have involved a major bureaucratic exercise to contact and register them all. With the new on-line registration system in place, almost 400 Irish citizens in the Thai capital were able to provide their own contact information, enabling the Department to stay in close contact with them throughout the crisis.?
Mr Martin said many of the young Irish people registered with the department using internet cafes in Bangkok.
?It involved the use of simple technology but had a huge effect and enabled the Department to stay in touch with Irish citizens on a large scale. If an evacuation of Irish citizens was required, the data base provided by the system of voluntary on line registration would have been invaluable.?
Some eight million overseas trips were made by Irish people last year, including some 1.65 million trips to Spain alone, according to the figures published by the department today.
An estimated 100,000 properties are in Irish ownership in Spain.
The Department of Foreign Affairs has recently published a booklet, Travel Safely ? Slan Abhaile which is a guide to Irish citizens traveling overseas.