Covid-19: Ireland's vaccine rollout 'catching up' on NI

The Republic of Ireland is catching up on Northern Ireland regarding vaccinations, its deputy prime minister has said.

Tánaiste Leo Varadkar told the Dáil (lower house of parliament) that he is much more confident about vaccine supplies for April, May and June.

About one million vaccines are due, on average, each month, he said.

Mr Varadkar repeated that he expected 80% of the population to have had at least one jab by the end of June.

He congratulated Northern Ireland and Britain on their ability to get people vaccinated and said the republic expected to pass the one million vaccination mark on 7 April.

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Mr Varadkar told independent Louth TD Peter Fitzpatrick that the contrast between the numbers north and south was down to the different contracts the UK had with AstraZeneca compared to the European Union.

"We don't know why the UK got preference from AstraZeneca", he said.

He also said: "We will catch up and we are catching up."

As of 31 March, the total number of vaccines administered in the Republic of Ireland is 806,541.

The number of people who have received their first dose of the vaccine is 580,857, and 225,684 people have received their second dose.

In Northern Ireland, a total of 749,112 individuals have received one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 138,486 have received two.