Longford was the county with by far the least blood donations last year.

According to Freedom of Information figures released to Newstalk, the total number of donations nationwide rose by 3% in 2021.

There were 130,801 blood donations last year: an increase of over 4,000 on 2020, when they declined due to the pandemic.

Last year there were just under 29,000 in Dublin.

At the other end of the scale, Longford had by far the least at just 586 - while Leitrim was the next lowest at 809.

A young man donates blood in Hamburg, Germany in September 2012. Picture by: dpa picture alliance archive / Alamy Stock Photo

That was followed by Roscommon, Sligo and Laois.

Paul McKinney is the operations director with the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS).

"Certainly there are counties who would have traditionally made bigger donations.

"But because of loss of venues and other public health restrictions that we've had to work with because of the pandemic, some counties certainly have struggled".

Some countries, like the United States of America, pay people for blood donations.

But Beaumont Hospital consultant Bill Tormey says Ireland's voluntary system is better.

"In America one of the problems about blood donation is in the past they had an awful lot of people who were on Skid Row, or in very poor social circumstances, and they were selling blood for money.

"And an awful lot of them had a lot of infections".

Last year 529 units of blood were imported from abroad due to a shortage of supply.