A doctor told RTE's Claire Byrne why she believes high numbers of people not turning up for booster Covid vaccinations are being recorded by the HSE.
Dr Maire Finn, a General Practitioner, said: "I think what's happening is there's three different options for people, and they're choosing the option that suits them best, which is perfectly reasonable.
"It's different to the first vaccination rollout when we had a very poor supply we had a very short window for when we could give the vaccines, so there was a panic, scramble, but I think what's happening now is that people are choosing their time more to suit themselves."
The news comes after the Director of a nursing home in Cork said she received texts from the HSE offering booster vaccines for deceased residents.
Janet Woodward, from the Douglas Nursing and Retirement Home, claimed she spent hours on the phone, speaking to people who said they had taken the deceased people off the list, but the home is still getting texts with appointments, reported RTE News.
Ms Woodward said she estimates that this has caused at least 24 wasted appointments.
Dr Finn agreed that there seemed to be a problem in being able to contact the HSE to cancel an appointment.
She said: "I think there is an issue about being able to contact the vaccine centres to say that they have already been vaccinated or are going to take up another option because the GPs are doing them, the pharmacies are doing them, and the vaccination centres are doing the vaccines at the moment, so there's good options."
She added: "I think that's the issue, that maybe the systems don't really speak to each other as well as they should."
Asked if the high numbers of no-shows to appointments will mean the vaccines are wasted, Dr Finn said: "Well to date, that hasn't happened. It's very different than it was in the very beginning.
"The Pfizer vaccine, in particular the mRNA vaccines… you had a very small window on when you could supply them, so when they were given to the surgery, we would use them in the space of 48 hours.
She added: "Now we have a month-long window that the vaccine is safe to rest in our fridges. So there isn't the same fear of vaccines going out of date or being not used."
