The HSE has expressed concern over lower uptake of the Covid-19 vaccine amongst Ireland's migrant communities.
HSE national director of the Covid vaccine programme, Damien McCallion, highlighted CSO figures which show that just 44 per cent of central and eastern Europeans in Ireland are vaccinated.
In an interview on Morning Ireland, he insisted that public health is still trying to reach individuals who have failed to present for vaccination.
"It is a concern for us. We still recognise that there are a number of groups we want to get. Migrant communities and other EU nationals were one of the groups," he said.
"Every person we get is a person better protected for themselves and the community. We are trying to ensure we can pick up what we can."
Renewed appeal
Mr McCallion renewed an appeal to certain sections of the community to get vaccinated.
"The (Covid vaccine) materials are available in 27 languages and our videos and educational material are in 36 different languages," he said.
"In terms of more targeted campaigns, we have worked with local community radios in 10 different languages. We have worked with local language papers in Polish and Lithuanian and Russian to try and reach those communities and with different embassies etc.
"In some cases, people don't listen to mainstream communications here in Ireland. And probably more fundamentally then as well, we know that there are sectors which are high risk and where there are large numbers from migrant communities - not just from the EU.
"We have worked with those employers, particularly in the food and meat industries, to try and look [into] initiatives both on and off site to try to work to educate people."
Mr McCallion added that the HSE is currently re-running foreign language campaigns through local press and is looking at pop-up vaccine initiatives to reach the cohort of the population yet to receive a vaccine.
"We are constantly trying to look at different ways (to reach these people). We are running a series of campaigns in pharmacies," he said.
Uptake rates
Meanwhile, Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has said the Government is considering a dedicated campaign on vaccinations to reach out to people who live in Ireland and who do not speak English.
While the HSE has been providing information in multiple languages to improve vaccine uptake, the Tánaiste believes more targeted campaigns may be needed.
CSO figures indicate that for Irish nationals, vaccine uptake rates range from 85 per cent in the 18 to 24 category to 96 per cent in the 65 plus category.
In general, there are lower vaccine uptake rates for those who have been allocated a PPSN within the past five years.
This is true in particular for nationals of EU14 to EU27 countries - countries that joined the EU since May 2004 - at 28 per cent, which also may reflect seasonal and short-term workers.
