Up to 75,000 people are to be vaccinated this week as injections for over-75s ramp-up

It comes as a vaccine export ban from the EU is now firmly on the agenda ahead of a European Council meeting on Thursday. 

Britain's NHS was able to inject a record number on Saturday - reaching nearly 850,000 people at a rate of 27 jabs a second. 

That's more in one day than the all the doses given by the HSE in Ireland since December. 

Little wonder then, that the tough talk on a vaccine export ban has only intensified. 

Irish Commissioner Mairead McGuinness told the BBC European citizens are angry about AstraZeneca's failure to deliver: 

"Both the EU and the UK have contracts with AstraZeneca and my understanding is that the company is supplying the UK but not the European Union"

It's understood British Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to lobby EU heads of state ahead of Thursday's Council of Europe meeting to try and avert the ban. 

Fine Gael MEP Deirdre Clune says Italy has already shown it's prepared to take action:

"The Italian government blocked exports to Australia. I think it shows that the commission is serious about this and needs to ensure that fair is fair."

At home, the HSE says 1,000 GPs will give between 70,000 and 75,000 shots this week, with a focus on those aged between 75 and 79. 

Hospital vaccine clinics are already back at work giving the AstraZeneca formula, but it's thought it could take up to two weeks to catch up after last week's delay to 30,000 of them.