AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson jabs may be used for younger people, both Stephen Donnelly and Leo Varadkar have indicated.
It comes as Health Minister Donnelly is consulting with Chief Medical Officer Dr Tony Holohan about the HSE’s updated vaccine plan following NIAC’s advice on the two jabs.
The Tanáiste said the single shot J&J jab would be “very popular” with people aged in their 40s.
And said the government wants to avoid “vaccines in fridges.”
At Fine Gael’s private parliamentary party meeting on Wednesday night, sources said the Tanáiste said vaccine supplies are still slower than anticipated but that the programme itself is “tipping away.”
It’s understood that Mr Varadkar said the HSE hopes hit close to 250,000 doses being administered this week, depending on supplies.
Sources also said that Mr Varadkar said that the HSE may end up in a situation where it might be possible to move to vaccinating people aged in their 40s while also vaccinating people in their 50s.
However, he said this still has to be worked out and the focus now is on vaccinating people aged in their 60s getting the jab.
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Latest figures from the Department of Health show over 400,000 doses of Covid vaccines were delivered into the country last week.
Figures up to May 2 show a total of 401,480 doses came into Ireland - the largest week of deliveries to date.
As of last Monday, 1,621,870 doses of Covid-19 vaccines have been administered in Ireland with 1,174,292 people receiving their first dose and 447,578 people being fully vaccinated.
Speaking at the Department of Health on Wednesday, Minister Donnelly confirmed that NIAC advice didn’t exclusively exclude the possibility that either jabs could be used in groups aged under 50.
Following rare blood clotting events in younger people, the State’s vaccine advisory body had said both vaccines should be used for people aged over 50.
However, NIAC included a condition in which they said the jabs could be used for younger age cohorts if no other vaccine was available.
The bulk of delivery of the single shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine is not due until June, which could have delayed vaccinating people aged between 50-59 if it was kept specifically for them.
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The HSE has put forward changes to the vaccination programme which would work around supplies from each of the four pharma giants that are sending vaccines to Ireland.
Minister Donnelly said: “We vaccinate according to risk, so we're continuing with the ages, and we said we wouldn't leave any spare vaccines.
“The vaccines would go out as soon as possible.”
He also said it is still a possibility that vaccination of over people aged over 40 could take place in parallel with those aged over 50.
He said: “The NIAC advice currently says use all of the vaccines for people 50 and over.. but it also says where it is appropriate to do so, that the vaccines [AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson] could be used with younger groups.
“If you look around Europe you’ll see quite a lot of different approaches have been taken by the different governments advised by their own regulators.”
He said the updated plan will be revealed once discussions are finalised with his department and the HSE.
Minister Donnelly said the country will get to about 80% by the end of June - dependent on vaccine supply.
His comment appeared to be less confident than the Taoiseach in recent times who was adamant that the State will reach its target of vaccinating over 80% of people with at least one Covid jab by the end of June.
Both Ministers said they will take whatever vaccine they are offered, both are in their 40s.
Minister Donnelly said: "I’m waiting my turn and I’ll take whatever I am offered.”
While the Tanaiste said: “I actually think for the 40 somethings the offer of a Janssen vaccine might be very popular because it would mean that you would be fully vaccinated only 14 days after one dose and [have] all the vaccine bonus and freedoms that come with it.
“So I don’t think we’ll have any difficulty getting people to accept that.”
Meanwhile, Minister Donnelly also said there is currently no need for Covid-19 vaccination centres to run 24 hours a day.
However, Minister Donnelly did say that if it is necessary to meet vaccine targets, it would be something that would be looked at.
Speaking to Ireland AM, he said: “The capacity within the vaccination centres coupled with the capacity within GPs, remember we have pharmacists as well and I'm hoping to see them play a bigger role, suggests that we wouldn't need to run the vaccines centres 24/7.
“Ideally you wouldn’t want people having to go in at 2, 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning.
“If we need to run the vaccine centres 24 hours a day to meet the target of getting the vaccines out as quickly as possible, it is absolutely something we can do.”