What happened with vaccines at the Beacon Hospital was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘repugnant,’ according to the Taoiseach.
It emerged on Friday that the hospital gave up to 20 ‘leftover’ vaccines to teachers at St Gerard's Catholic School in Bray.
The children of the hospital’s CEO Michael Cullen attend the private school.
There have since been calls from opposition parties, including Sinn Fein and Labour, for Mr Cullen to resign from his position.
Meanwhile, the Health Minister Stephen Donnelly has asked for the vaccine programme at the hospital to be suspended.
Speaking this afternoon, the Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the HSE was now examining what happened.
“What happened there was unacceptable,” he said.
“I have condemned it and, in my view, it was very, very wrong and just completely unacceptable.
“It is repugnant to people that something like that would happen and that is why the administration of vaccines there has been suspended.”
Last week, the Dublin hospital confirmed there were spare doses that had to be used at short notice, and some were given to teachers.
Mr Cullen has apologised for the upset caused by the controversy and admitted that the decision was “not in line with the sequencing guidelines in place from the HSE.”
The board of the hospital was due to meet today to consider next steps.
The controversy caused much anger and frustration among the public and relatives of patients at the Beacon Hospital.
