Taoiseach Brian Cowen and his cabinet ministers will be among the first to be vaccinated against the H1N1 swine flu virus when a mass vaccination programme is introduced here in the autumn as expected.


However, other members of the public who are seen as "non-essential" to the functioning of the state, or who are not deemed to be at high risk from the virus, may have to wait until sufficient supplies of the vaccine become available.


A high-level interdepartmental planning group has asked every government department, state agency and body to compile a hitlist of key personnel required to ensure the country continues to run smoothly in the event of a pandemic.


This is seen as increasingly likely after the British health minister Andy Burnham revealed authorities there will no longer attempt to contain the spread of the virus, which could rise to 100,000 cases per day by August.


The state bodies have been asked to include details of the number of people they would need to function effectively. A separate request for lists of key workers has also been circulated to private businesses around the country.


The workers identified will be prioritised in the rollout of a mass vaccination programme, when it gets underway as hoped in the autumn.


A government spokesman stressed yesterday that everyone in the country will be offered the vaccine, and said decisions on who will be prioritised would be based on recommendations it received.


However, the Sunday Tribune understands that the Taoiseach and his cabinet would be "very high up" on any list of people to be prioritised, although it remains unclear if this would also apply to ministers of state.


A spokesman for the Department of Health said the list was aimed at indentifying " essential personnel" such as emergency workers and gardaí. This would likely include the government which would be required to "supply leadership".


A HSE spokeswoman said that the rollout of a mass vaccination programme would depend significantly on how many batches of the vaccine are made available to the state at any one time.


Authorities will likely then have to decide if it will be possible to vaccinate all key workers and other high-risk patients such as the elderly and young children at the same time, or separately.


A spokesman for the Houses of the Oireachtas could not say yesterday whether all TDs will receive the vaccine as a priority, and it remained unclear if senators would also be viewed as "key workers".


The total number of confirmed cases of swine flu in Ireland stood at 63 yesterday, including 12 new cases identified on Friday.


A notice posted on the government's etenders website on Friday said it had signed an "advance purchasing agreement" for the supply of vaccines "in the event of a pandemic" with two pharmaceutical companies – Baxter healthcare and GlaxoSmithKline Ireland.


The total final value of the contracts is listed as €88m. Speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday, Dr Tony Holohan, the health department's chief medical officer, said that the state will have access to up to 7.7 million doses of the vaccine once it becomes available.


It is understood that participation in any vaccination programme, which would typically be rolled out through GP surgeries or a network of "swine flu" clinics to be provided in public buildings, will be voluntary.