Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has confirmed he will be asking for a "full account" of events after a Dublin hospital gave leftover vaccine doses to their staff's family members.
It has emerged that 16 leftover doses at the Coombe Hospital in Dublin were injected into the relatives - which included two of the hospital's Master's children on January 8.
Minister Donnelly said in a statement that he was made aware of the situation on Friday and it "should not have happened".
He said: "Trust in the vaccine programme is of critical importance and what happened should not have happened.
"Our vaccine allocation strategy clearly sets out a priority list for vaccination - and that's currently for frontline healthcare workers and residents and staff of our long-term residential care facilities.
"It does not include family members of healthcare workers."
He added: "I will be speaking with the chair of the Coombe Hospital Board for a full account."
Professor Michael O'Connell, Master of the Coombe told The Irish Times, where the story was reported originally, that he "deeply regretted" the incident.
He added that if the vaccines had not been used, they would have been binned.
There are currently 1,923 Covid patients in hospital with 196 in ICU as 13 further deaths and 2,944 cases were confirmed last night.
Nearly 80,000 people have received the first dose of the Covid vaccine.
