Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has issued an apology to those affected by the HSE's contact tracing controversy.
Mr Donnelly said that the episode – which saw thousands of close contacts of positive cases not hearing from the HSE – "wouldn't happen" in an ideal world.
It emerged on Monday evening that the HSE was asking people who had tested positive to get in touch with their close contacts due to their contact tracing system being 'overwhelmed'.
"I and everyone else would prefer that it didn't happen," he said.
"I have no problem apologising to them (those who were affected)."
But Minister Donnelly told RTE's Morning Ireland that the contact tracing system "absolutely has not failed".
"People have been saying – incorrectly – that the contact tracing system has fallen down," he said.
"The contact tracing teams are being ramped up very, very quickly.
"In the last six weeks they are now making 400% more calls than they did."
The Minister for Health, who came under fire last night for not being aware of the issue before it emerged in the Irish Times, said that there were "numerous ways" the HSE could have told the Government about the decision.
But he added: "I would just re-emphasise: we're dealing with a global pandemic, we're dealing with exponential growth."
After the country moved into Level Five restrictions at midnight, Mr Donnelly was also forced to address accusations that he was initially not keen on a move to the strictest tier on Ireland's Living with Covid plan.
"Everyone would be reluctant to go to Level Five," he said.
"We all understand the costs. There's people waking up this morning who don't have jobs to go to.
"There are people who are vulnerable to this condition, who are scared again.
"It was with a very heavy heart that I and everybody else in Cabinet said we needed to go to Level Five."
He added that we can expect to see increased case numbers over the coming days despite the imposition of the new restrictions.
"There is a lag – we do expect them to rise.
“We're moving early. We flatten the curve and then we open back up again for December.”
