Some Waterford residents have been offered vaccine appointments at centres in Kerry due to a "ludicrous" glitch in the jab system.
The vaccine rollout system appears to be directing residents to the nearest mass vaccination centre if there are no appointments available in closer centres, even if the nearest available appointment is hours away from their homes.
Some West Waterford residents have been given appointments for vaccination in Killarney, Co Kerry, a four-hour drive for some people.
Waterford Councillor Conor McGuinness told The Mirror that “most of the people who contacted me had made the four-hour round trip to Killarney. They told me they were anxious about missing out on their chance to get the vaccine".
He said the situation created “difficulty, confusion and anxiety locally".
As a member of the Regional Health forum, Cllr McGuinness says he is “eager to get to the bottom of the glitch that caused this situation".
John Pratt, a Labour councillor in Waterford, told WLR FM the issue is “definitely a glitch in the system, it shouldn’t be happening".
He told host Damien Tierney that expecting people who can’t drive or who can’t handle a long distance journey to set off on a “crazy journey” two counties over is “ludicrous".
There are vaccine centres in County Waterford, County Tipperary and multiple centres in County Cork that would be a shorter journey for many in West Waterford.
Cllr Pratt even told of one resident who received an appointment for a centre in Sligo.
Speaking to The Mirror, local councillor Thomas Phelan said that the issue lies with “how the HSE uses their eircode to determine where they should go".
Cllr Phelan said the HSE was undertaking a “mammoth task” with the national vaccination programme and the cyber attack has only complicated things further.
He said that it seems “there may have been too much reliance on computers over human input and local knowledge when it came to allocating people to their nearest vaccination centre".
He added: “It will be difficult for many people to get to Killarney at the present time. Hopefully this can be ironed out before vaccination is expanded to more age groups so that people aren't being sent further than is necessary.”
Cllr McGuinness explained that that error has since been corrected and that those who weren't able to make it to Kerry for a vaccine will now be offered a jab “closer to home".
