Chair of the Covid-19 vaccination taskforce Professor Brian McCraith has said they remain "very cautious" on specific targets given the recent setbacks with supply.
Speaking on RTÉ's Brendan O'Connor he said he has counted more than 15 changes to supply since he started in his role on the taskforce so that shows the level of uncertainty around it. "This is all about hope and managing the expectation", he said.
He said the plan is that over 70s will have the first doses of the vaccine starting on Monday week (15 February) with that completed by mid-April, which is a couple of weeks later than planned.
He said that is because they are now using two vaccines instead of the planned three, with AstraZeneca not advised for this age group.