The Irish Blood Transfusion service is calling on people to prioritise blood donation this Christmas.
10,000 blood donors are needed during the festive season to keep up with the demand, the service said.
People can check their eligibility to give blood by completing the ‘New Donor Eligibility Quiz’ on the IBTS website.
Operations director of the IBTS, Paul McKinney, said certain blood groups are running low.
"Well we like to have seven days of blood supply for all blood types. We never do unfortunately, it's always a challenge.
"We're particularly under pressure for our rhesus negative blood groups, that's O-negative, which is the universal blood group, A-negative, and B-negative.
"If you are one of those groups in particular, please make that special effort."
