A decision on delaying a second dose of the existing vaccine supply has not been decided on and will be guided by health experts, the Minister for European affairs has said.
Thomas Byrne said the Government's vaccine programme "is not unambitious" and that a further 40,000 doses are expected to arrive in the coming week, although this is not confirmed.
The roll-out of vaccines began in Dublin last Tuesday, with a 79-year-old Dublin woman the first person to be administered the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine at St James's Hospital.
Mr Byrne defended the Government's handling of restrictions in December, saying while it was known numbers would go up, "no one predicted numbers would go to this level".