Taoiseach Micheál Martin has called for calm in the race to vaccinate populations against Covid-19.
Mr Martin was speaking in the wake of a move by the European Union (EU) to use a post-Brexit mechanism to interfere with supply lines of the jab.
The bloc later backtracked following outrage in London, Belfast and Dublin.
The Taoiseach said more people getting vaccinated across Europe is a good thing.
“We were watching what’s happening in the UK and saying, ‘well done, you are vaccinating quickly and that’s important’,” he told the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show.
“Overall, across Europe we all need to roll out the vaccination programme as effectively and efficiently as we can, so I would like if we can dial down the tone and work collegially is the best way to deal with this.”
Asked whether he would like to see any UK surplus of the vaccination distributed to Ireland, Mr Martin said there is a long way to go yet.
“The UK has a long way to go, we have a long way to go, Europe has long way to go,” he said.
“I think all of us have a collective responsibility to ensure that the developing world, and particularly frontline workers in the developing world, are vaccinated as well because this is a global situation.
“There’s very little point in the virus raging across developing countries while we vaccinate 100 per cent here because that would mean more mutations.
“We have a journey to go but I think we will get there if we can just calm down.
“There’s an understandable race against time in relation to getting the vaccines out but, if you think about it, what has happened in the last 10 months has been truly remarkable that we’ve managed to facilitate the development of vaccines in such a short space of time.
“I understand that anxiety, but we will get there.”
Timeline
On Saturday, comments from the Taoiseach and Tánaiste seemed to suggest the Government parties have differing opinions as to the progression of the Covid-19 vaccination timeline in Ireland.
According to Leo Varadkar, the target of vaccinating every adult in the country by September can still be met, while Micheál Martin said meeting that target is now unlikely — adding that it may be the end of the year before all Irish citizens are vaccinated.
There have been more than 1,000 deaths linked to Covid-19 and more than 100,000 cases of the virus in Ireland in January, it has emerged.
Chief medical officer Dr Tony Holohan warned about the remaining level of infection on Saturday evening, although there has been a decrease in case numbers recently.
Dr Holohan said more cases had been reported in the month of January than throughout all of 2020.
