MINISTER for Health Stephen Donnelly has poured cold water on an optimistic prediction Leo Varadkar made about Ireland's Covid-19 vaccine rollout.
During a Fine Gael parliamentary meeting this week, the Tánaiste is understood to have said that anyone who wishes to have a coronavirus jab could get one before the end of June.
Previous predictions suggested that Ireland would only be able to vaccinate around 80% of its adult population at most by the end of next month, but Varadkar apparently remains confident this could change.
Minister Donnelly, however, wasn't so sure, and despite saying he had hopes the government could deliver on that pledge, he stressed that it was "very ambitious".
The latest analysis, Donnelly told Newstalk, showed that everyone in Ireland will likely be fully vaccinated by September, not the end of June.
While there are still hopes that the rollout could be completed earlier than then, Mr Donnelly said that vaccine hesitancy was still an issue, despite a report emerging this week revealing that Irish people are the most willing to accept the vaccine among all EU citizens.
However, around 10% of Irish adults say they're unlikely to accept the vaccine, while around 16% are unsure, which will likely delay the completion date.
The rollout is also highly dependent on there being no more supply issues, which plagued Ireland's vaccination programme for weeks back in February and March.
