TAOISEACH Micheál Martin has defended his Government's slow roll-out of Covid-19 vaccinations, arguing that rushing the programme would be too risky.
On Tuesday night, a number of Cabinet members raised concerns about the country's ability to hit their vaccination targets, while the HSE was also unable to confirm exactly how many had already been administered, due to the use of a paper-based recording system.
Yesterday, a HSE spokeswoman said that "approximately 4,000" vaccines had been administered on Sunday, but couldn't confirmed how many had been administered since.
Speaking to RTÉ News on Tuesday, Martin said that 35,000 vaccines would administered each week from now on, and defended the pace of the nation's roll-out.
"You rush this at your peril," he warned.
However, even 35,000 vaccines a week seems like quite a tough ask, with a Government source saying: "It is going to involve quite a catch-up to get to 35,000 a week by the end of the week," according to extra.ie.
An Irish minister reportedly told the Irish Daily Mail that they didn't understand why there was so much "secrecy" around the programme.
"I can't get a solid figure on how many people we've vaccinated, so there is definitely no such figure being given to the public," the minister said.
"This is a good news story. Even if it's lagging, we need to be explaining that to people and bring them along.
"The vaccination messaging has been appalling."
See More: Covid-19, Covid-19 Vaccine, Micheál Martin, Vaccines
