The Irish Blood Transfusion Service is opening extra clinics in order to increase donations to meet demand over Christmas.

There is currently a 5 to 6 day supply of blood available to meet the needs of hospitals around the country - and 14,000 donations are needed between now and the New Year.

While the festive break always proves a challenging time for collecting blood donations, an extra 1,500 donations will be lost this month because of a new EU directive on iron levels in donors. The IBTS has also said collection will be more challenging this year because of the mid-week Christmas and New Year's dates, meaning clinics will not be able to operate on what are typically any given week's busiest collection days.

To counter this, both fixed and mobile IBTS teams will be operating additional clinics on the Sundays before and after Christmas (the 22nd and 29th December, as well as January 5th). You can find out more details about clinics at giveblood.ie.

Director of Operations with the IBTS Paddy Bowler explains the group's various concerns: