PEOPLE in Ireland will be able to register for their Covid-19 vaccine online from the end of April.
According to RTÉ's Ferghal Bowers, a new online portal is being launched to allow the public to set up vaccine appointments easier.
The system should be up and running during the last week in April and will serve as a launchpad for Ireland's vaccination roll-out, which has made a stuttering start.
Previously you would have to wait to be contacted by your GP to make an appointment, but this new system allows people to join a waiting list whenever they wish.
There will still be a priority system in place, with Ireland's elderly population in line to receive the vaccines first, but this way, if you want your jab you won't have to wait to be contacted to sign up for an appointment.
The news comes after the Government announced changes to the country's vaccination programme, where age would be the only deciding factor in organising priority, with occupation now out of consideration.
The changes incited plenty of criticism as they were seen as an admission of failure on the part of the Government to put in place system to prioritise front-line healthcare workers.
Speaking in the Dáil on Wednesday, Sinn Féin spokesperson on Health David Cullinane TD criticised the Government's failure to recognise the hard work done by health workers an carers.
"Family carers have been through an incredibly difficult year. They have been asked to do more with far less," he said.
"Now any hope of them being prioritised for the vaccine to protect them and their loves ones are dashed.
"The Government decision to change the vaccine roll-out plans at this late stage is an admission of failure to put the systems in place.
"Government failed to prepare for the vaccine roll-out over the last year, and failed to put the lists together for those groups that are being scrapped.
"This also means that workers in our shops and retail, who have been out working right through the pandemic, will also not be prioritised despite their daily risk.
"Many of them are young people with young families, and they have been put to the back of the queue.
"And now family carers are being left behind again because not enough was done to ensure a fair roll-out."
See More: Covid-19, Covid-19 Vaccine
