People aged over-70 and older will start being vaccinated against coronavirus from next month, the Government has confirmed.
The delivery will begin with those aged 85 years and older, then 80-84, 75-79 and 70-74.
These will be administered initially through GPs in their surgeries.
However this is subject to regulatory approval of AstraZeneca - which has said deliveries to the EU are set to be cut by 60%.
While MEP for Ireland-South Seán Kelly has criticised the pharmaceutical firm.
He told The Hard Shoulder earlier: "They got €336m in August for 300 million doses - that was to ensure that their supply chains and production lines would be ramped up, to expand production capacity and now they're saying they can't deliver.
"That is just not good enough".
But Health Minister Stephen Donnelly said: "Despite anticipated disruption to deliveries, which was announced on Friday January 22nd, Ireland will receive a delivery of AstraZeneca vaccine within the expected range for February, although at the lower end of that range.
"Delivery in March is likely to be more impacted and considerably lower than what was originally stated by the company.
"We continue to prioritise those most vulnerable to COVID-19 in our society against the backdrop of limited supply of vaccines."
Minister Donnelly said people do not need to take any specific action at the moment, while the HSE is preparing a public information campaign.
"In the meantime, completing vaccinations for those most vulnerable to COVID-19 infection remains the priority", he said.
"Every possible nursing home resident has already received one dose and some have received second doses.
"Healthcare workers are also a priority. Second doses will be administered over the coming weeks to 77,000 healthcare workers.
"We will continue to roll out first and second doses to our remaining frontline healthcare workers during February."
Minister Donnelly added: "There is huge interest in our vaccine programme, which is very welcome.
"I committed recently to providing the public with daily figures, as full transparency is important. The HSE has advised that there is a backlog of figures to be inputted and validated.
"It is working hard to achieve full utilisation of the vaccination IT system at which point it will be in a position to provide updates."
The most recent figures show the HSE administered 143,000 vaccine doses up to Sunday, January 24th.
