Irish pharmacies will begin rolling out one-shot Janssen vaccines to 18-34-year-olds from Monday.
Stephen Donnelly confirmed on Friday morning that health authorities have sped up administering jabs to this cohort by about two months in an effort to fend off the threat of the Delta variant.
The Health Minister has also said that the State expects to open the online portal on Monday week, July 12, for people aged 18-34 to opt-in if they want to receive the AstraZeneca vaccine.
From next Friday, the online registration portal for the vaccine will also be opened to people in the 30-34 cohort.
Minister Donnelly said: "We're adding an opt-in model for people aged 18 to 34 for Janssen and AstraZeneca, so they can be vaccinated earlier.
"What it means is that people aged 18 to 34 can now be vaccinated two months earlier, which is a huge, huge benefit to them and to our entire society.
"We now have two tracks, we have the track we're all used to and it's next Friday. Next Friday, the online portal is going to open for 30 to 34-year-olds. It will be vaccinations with MRNA and mainly Pfizer, then Moderna will be about a week later.
"We'll move very very quickly with the 30 to 34-year-old group. In parallel to that, we're opening up an AstraZeneca and Janssen option if people want to get vaccinated earlier for the entire 18 to 34-year-old group."
The Health Minister said that people aged 30-34 will have two options to receive the vaccine.
He told RTE's Morning Ireland: "Next Monday, pharmacies will begin administering Janssen to people aged 18 to 34, who have contacted their pharmacy registered with their pharmacy and said, 'I'd like to be vaccinated, I appreciate that I will be getting an mRNA vaccine in the future, but I want to get vaccinated earlier.'
"Supplies are limited for both AstraZeneca and Janssen answer but critically what I wanted to make sure, which is why I sought this review of the NIAC advice is that every vaccine dose we have of all four are used and are available to people.
"As of Monday, about 750 pharmacies around the country will begin vaccinating people 18 to 34 with Janssen."
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