A European official has predicted that Ireland will have received enough vaccines to fully protect 70% of the population by the middle of July.
Thierry Breton was speaking to the Dáil and Oireachtas Committee on European Union Affairs this afternoon - and made the prediction as the EU is on target to deliver almost six million doses to Ireland by mid-July.
Internal Market Commissioner Breton also said that by the end of the year, the EU will have an annual production capacity of over three billion doses.
So far, Ireland has vaccinated over a million people - with around about 1.3million doses delivered here in the first quarter of the year.
Both the Taoiseach and the Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly have consistently said that four out of every five adults will have been offered a vaccine by the end of June.
Commissioner Breton's comments would suggest that is still feasible.
"I am confident that by mid-July, we will have produced enough doses to fully vaccinate 70% of the adult population which is something that is extremely important," he told the Dáil.
Ireland is on track to get another four million doses over the next few months.
But Commissioner Breton who leads a European taskforce on the industrial scale-up of Covid-19 vaccines, said this could increase to six million.
"This includes some doses coming from Janssen, which is only a one-shot vaccine. This is why we are confident we will be able to deliver enough doses. It will depend on the ability of the countries to organise mass vaccinations in order to reach the 70% of adult population by mid-July."
The HSE has published a new report which has revealed details of when everyone in the first seven Covid-19 cohorts will be fully vaccinated.
We also know the estimated sizes of the cohorts thanks to the HSE's data.
Here's what we learned about when each cohort will get a second dose:
