The Taoiseach and Health Minister were only made aware last night that the HSE is asking some people to carry out their own contact tracing.
A spokesperson for Stephen Donnelly says the decision was made by the HSE for 'operational reasons', adding that it was a temporary measure.
Thousands of positive cases from last weekend have been asked by the health service to inform their close contacts, due to pressure on the system.
A spokesperson for Health Minister Stephen Donnelly says he was only made aware of the system being overwhelmed last night.
It echoed comments by the Taoiseach in the Dail today, who said he found out through a text message linking to a news article.
“I got a text last evening which included the Irish Times article, that’s when I first knew."
Labour leader Alan Kelly says there were plenty of opportunities to recruit staff before this issue arose.
"There is hundreds of thousands of competent people out there that could have been recruited over the last number of months. It is not conceivable to the public why they were not resourced up until now".
