The Health Service Executive was warned in November 2019 by the health watchdog HIQA that its computerised infectious disease reporting management system needed to be "fit for purpose" for future demands.
Towards the end of last year, the CIDR system was unable to handle daily Covid-19 cases exceeding around 2,000 and a significant backlog of reporting cases developed.
This week, health officials defended the system and said that a fix had now been applied to the system and that it could now handle the case numbers currently being reported.
The HIQA report into the management of the CIDR was published in November 2019 and said: "It is essential that there are 'fit for purpose' information systems in place to support the delivery of public