Tanaiste Leo Varadkar has apologised to the public who were left queuing for hours or turned away from walk-in vaccination centres on Thursday.
The HSE’s vaccination centres struggled to cope with demand for booster jabs with frustrated members of the public being turned away by staff at the vaccination centre at UCD.
The UCD campus and Croke Park centres hit full capacity early on Thursday morning.
The HSE had admitted there had been IT issues with the roll-out of the booster programme.
Addressing the fiasco in the Dáil, Mr Varadkar said he was sorry that people were not able to get their third dose, something that the Taoiseach has been urging people to get.
Mr Varadkar said: “I just want to express my regrets and apologise on behalf of the Government and HSE for the inconvenience faced by people this morning who were queuing for their dose and weren’t able to get it.
“In the round, the third dose programme is going very well, over a million people in Ireland have received their third dose.
“I think we’re very close to the top of the league table in the European Union in terms of third doses.
“We’re now in fourth place out of 27 countries, but I know that if you’re left standing in the cold waiting for a vaccine that they don’t get, that’s pretty cold comfort.
“There have been IT problems and teething problems, and we will get them right just like we got them right during the first period of the vaccine programme.”
The HSE gave live updates on its social media accounts to advise people on demand and capacity in real time.
However, it was vaccination staff at the centres that faced the brunt of the anger from people who had queued for up to two hours.
Joan Collins TD raised the matter with the Tanáiste in the Dáil and asked why more pharmacies and community centres were not involved in the booster roll-out.
The Fine Gael leader said there were about 900 pharmacies involved and said it is “important that all pharmacies are given the possibility to participate.”
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