The Cabinet has agreed to enter an advanced purchase order for 875,000 doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.
The EU is expecting to buy around 80 million doses of which Ireland will get a little more than 1%.
It means there are now purchase orders between Ireland and five of the vaccines under development.
That would give the country access to more than 10 million doses of vaccine, though some will be a double dose.
Vaccines currently under development include Moderns, Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Johnson and Johnson.
Earlier this month, US company Moderna said its coronavirus vaccine is 94% effective with no significant safety concerns.
Speaking to The Pat Kenny Show yesterday, immunologist Professor Luke O'Neill has said the best thing to do is to make any coronavirus vaccine voluntary.
He said: "Some countries will make it mandatory to have it anyway - in some countries it'll be illegal not to vaccinate.
"Now, we don't want to do that: the best thing with vaccines is to make it voluntary and to try to convince people from their better nature.
"You're not really taking the vaccine for yourself, you're doing it to protect others.
"That's the line that we must follow".
