Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly has said AstraZeneca is "repeatedly changing its delivery schedules, often at the last minute, and revising down the volumes that it had agreed to deliver".
Speaking in the Dáil, Mr Donnelly said it was unfair for people to accuse the Health Service Executive of missing vaccine targets. "This is not true, AstraZeneca is missing its targets", he said.
Mr Donnelly said that over a seven-day period last week, AstraZeneca revised down their deliveries "at the very last minute, three times", citing problems around production.
He also rejected the idea that Ireland should use vaccines that have not been approved by the European Medicines Agency. He said more than 99% of people aged over 85 have now been