The president of the Irish College of General Practitioners, Dr John Madden, last night said he expected doctors' surgeries to be crowded this morning with very worried parents.
"It is going to be a very busy time for GPs and we will be doing our very best to reassure people. Earlier today I had to deal with a number of people in my own surgery. There are two main suppliers of vaccine and our records will show who received which one."
"The announcement will naturally worry a large number of people and it will damage the immunisation programme which doctors advocate. But we will have to go with the best advice and information available to us from the experts that there is no risk from the batch of vaccine," he said.
Dr Madden said he had received a substantial fax with details of the situation.
But Dr Roddy Quinn, chairman of the Sligo College of General Practitioners, said he had received no official notification.
"I feel ill-equipped to deal with the situation, and as a general practitioner that is very worrying. I will be able to reassure the people whose children did not receive the particular batch of vaccine but any others I will have to refer to the health board helplines which have been set up.
"It probably is not a very serious situation but until doctors on the ground have the full information we cannot give proper advice to our patients," he said.