The Irish Nurses and Midwives Organisation has welcomed the decision to extend vaccine boosters to healthcare workers following advice from the National Immunisation Advisory Committee.
The Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly says the vaccinations will begin to be rolled out at the weekend.
It comes as almost 3,500 health staff are out of work due to covid related illnesses.
General Secretary of the INMO, Phil Ni Sheaghdha, says the process of administering boosters needs to happen very quickly.
"The HSE tell us that thankfully there is not a shortage of vaccines, and the vaccination centres are up and running.
"We have a very sophisticated system of peer vaccination, which sees for example nurses vaccinating other workers in their own work places.
"So we're hopeful that with all of those combined we could see this rolled out very quickly."
