A Minister of State has defended the overhaul of the vaccination rollout, saying the medical and scientific advice completely justified the changes.
The new system will focus on age over the previous occupation-based approach, meaning some front-line workers like teachers and gardai will be further down the vaccination list than previous.
While Taoiseach Michael Martin has completely defended the move to vaccinate the oldest people first, teachers and garda unions however have reacted angrily.
On this morning's Deise Today, Minister of State Josepha Madigan said it was important to stress that the new advice had come from National Immunisation and Advisory Committee, NPHET, and the HSE.
"The advise is that risk increases because of age so in a nutshell, we had too many cohorts in the original vaccination programme," she told Damien Tiernan.
"This would slow it down so in the long run this is a quicker way of getting as many people as possible vaccinated."
Josepha Madigan, who is Minister of State with responsibility for Special Education and Inclusion (and a former Minister for Culture), said that her own grandfather was a garda and she knew the incredible work they do on a daily basis, particularly during this pandemic.
Having served at Cabinet previously, she also understood how decisions had to be made and economic and socio-economic factors had to be taken account of when making decisions.
"Not everyone is going to be happy with the vaccination programme announced yesterday," she conceeded.
"I know people are disapppointed," she said, adding that it wasn't only gardai and teachers affected by the changes but other essential workers like retail workers, bus drivers, supermarket workers etc.
She said under the current plan, half of all adults will have received their first dose of vaccine by the end of May and four weeks from now, everyone over 70 would be fully vaccinated.
She also pointed out there were positives to yesterday's announcements, mainly the lifting of the 5k rule and the return of all children to school.
You can listen back to Minister Josepha Madigan's interview by clicking below here...
Meanwhile, you can listen back to the full Deise Today from this morning by clicking below here...
