It's hoped up to 40 thousand doses of the Pfizer BioNTech coronavirus vaccine will arrive in Ireland before the new year.
The first 10 thousand will be here on St. Stephen's Day.
The vaccines will begin to be administered on December 30th. Nursing home residents will be the first cohort of people to get the vaccine.
HSE chief executive Paul Reid says talks with Pfizer are ongoing to boost the initial supplies.
"It is our expectation in the discussions that immediately a few days after the delivery of the first ten thousand. we will receive a further thirty-one thousand, so bringing to just over forty thousand over the course of the first week."
