The HSE has announced it will start Covid-19 vaccination a day earlier than planned, but Ireland will still be the third-last country in the EU to start giving the shots as the HSE grapples with staff training.
Twenty-seven states across the EU each got their first doses yesterday, with Germany, Hungary and Slovenia starting vaccination ahead of schedule last night, before doctors in 18 other nations received the shot this morning.
Meanwhile, Ireland's 10,000 doses will remain in cold storage until Tuesday at least after the HSE's chief executive Paul Reid said vaccination may start on the 29th, rather than the 30th as previously planned.
The HSE says it is still finalising training and education materials for vaccinators, and preparing an e-learning programme.
Staff at the four vaccine sites still have to be trained before the first vaccinations can be given.
By then all EU states except Ireland, Belgium and the Netherlands will have administered their first doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine.
Earlier today, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar said he was "not 100 per cent sure" as to why there was a delay between the arrival of the vaccine doses and the first administration of the shots, but said Ireland would catch up to other EU countries once vaccination begins.
People over the age of 65 resident in long-term care facilities will be the first to receive the vaccine, followed by frontline healthcare workers.
