HSE CEO Paul Reid has admitted that the younger generation got "unfair criticism" during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Ireland is “at least four weeks ahead” of its vaccination programme with vaccination to begin for 280,000 teens within the next two weeks.
And over the Bank Holiday, 30,000 people availed of the walk-in jab centres across Ireland.
The majority of these were aged under 25 - which led Mr Reid to heap praise on them in a tweet on Wednesday.
He said: "There's been times in #COVID19 that young people have come in for unfair criticism. What I witnessed last weekend in walk in vaccination centres, were younger people, mature beyond their years, with the greater good of society & our health service driving their actions."
Meanwhile, former Minister Katherine Zappone has defended a private outdoor event she hosted with around 50 friends and former colleagues at a plush five-star Dublin hotel.
Ms Zappone has been at the centre of a political storm after she was controversially appointed without competition to a Special Envoy role for freedom of expression by Foreign Affairs Minister Simon Coveney a week ago.
The appointment blindsided Taoiseach Micheál Martin who did not have prior knowledge of the proposal going to Cabinet.
It has now emerged that Ms Zappone along with friends, civil servants, and politicians, including Tanáiste Leo Varadkar were present at the outdoor private event at the Merrion Hotel days before she was appointed the new job.
