Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)
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It is my first time speaking to the Minister of State and I am delighted. I thank her for coming in to discuss the critical issue of blood donations.

Last week the Irish Blood Transfusion Service said it needed an extra 12,000 blood donations as most blood groups have fallen to under three days of stock. Without the selfless act of a person donating blood, the Irish health system will come to a halt. As the Minister of State knows, blood only last 35 days and supply is almost always dynamic. It became so critical last week that the Irish Blood Transfusion Service almost went into amber alert. That would mean that elective surgeries would not continue. I spoke to the Irish Blood Transfusion Service and, after last week's appeal, up to yesterday afternoon, it had 5.8 days' supply, but it aims to hold seven days. What it really needs is more new donors. Only 3% of the population donate blood, which I could not believe when I actually looked at the statistic. A total of 8% of those donors are O negative. The service needs younger, repeat donors, donors of African heritage and other ethnicities to ensure the national blood supply remains safe and sustainable. With all of this in mind, now is the time to appeal to younger donors, ensure there are clinics in every county, educate people on the importance of donation and perhaps allow employees time off to donate blood.

The average donor age in Ireland is age 46 years even though we can give blood from the age of 18. The maximum age is 65, but as we are all living longer lives, should this not be extended? When I did some research on this last week and, in fact, this morning, I saw that, although supplies were critical, we had no blood transfusion clinics in ten counties last week nor are there any in those counties for the last two weeks of October. When I had another look today, 15 counties out of 26 have no blood donation clinic for the last 11 days of October, including my own county of Meath. We are at a critical juncture and, in fact, five counties, among them Westmeath, Longford, Leitrim and Laois, have no clinics planned for November either. Are we investing enough or is it a manpower issue preventing us from running more clinics?

Similarly, education is key. Why are there not more donors? Why are we in a critical time? How can we reach underrepresented communities? We need to ensure materials are available in every language and that we appeal to religious groups and immigrant support centres. We need to educate people on the importance of blood donation and what they can do for their communities.

Blood is used in more than 70 hospitals across Ireland. Every week hundreds of patients in Ireland rely on blood transfusions for surgeries, cancer treatment and emergency care. Blood is also needed for women who have with complications while giving birth. The IBTS needs around 3,000 donations every week just to meet the demand in hospitals across the country.

I urge employers to perhaps allow employees time off to donate blood. They would need only two hours per year. The average time it takes to donate blood is only two hours. As I said, blood is used in 70 hospitals across Ireland. Every week hundreds of patients in Ireland rely on it. It is estimated that one in four people will require a blood transfusion at some stage in their lives, with 67% of all blood used to help support cancer patients. Every single day in Ireland, somebody’s life depends on the generosity of a blood donor.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service has said it would welcome the Department of Health’s support in continuing to promote blood donation awareness and in every way that enables it to meet its objectives.What can the Department do to help the Irish Blood Transfusion Service? Have we increased our investment in it? Can we increase our investment in how the message of the urgency of blood donation is communicated?

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I thank the Senator for raising this important issue, which I am taking on behalf of the Minister, Deputy Carroll McNeill. I have taken all of her concerns on board and I will definitely come back at the end on what she has brought up.

The Irish Blood Transfusion Service is a non-commercial State agency responsible for collecting, processing, testing and distributing blood and blood products in Ireland. It relies completely on the generosity of voluntary non-remunerated donors to provide sufficient donations to ensure a consistent supply of blood. The IBTS is funded by charging hospitals for the products and testing services it provides to support patient care. The product pricing is informed by an activity-based cost recovery model. As part of the annual IBTS budget process, prices for blood and blood products are agreed and approved annually by the Minister for Health. The IBTS anticipates an income of approximately €86 million for 2025, with total projected costs for 2025 of €86 million, which results in a balanced budget. The IBTS is adequately funded and has not sought an increase in price since 2023. The current blood appeal is not related to funding.

The IBTS endeavours to maintain five to seven days' stock of each blood group. To ensure this, the IBTS remains in constant communication with hospitals in relation to blood stock levels. The IBTS has robust emergency blood management plans and business continuity plans to manage the national blood stocks in times of blood shortages. Since 2019 Ireland has seen an increase in demand for red cells. Specifically, this demand reflects an increase in the number of patients in Ireland undergoing lifesaving treatments, including urgent surgery, chemotherapy, stem cell transplantation and red cell exchange transfusion, including additional blood requirements to support increased weekend patient treatment activity. In 2024 the IBTS issued the highest number of blood donation units to Irish hospitals in over a decade, at just under 128,500 units, and this exceptionally high demand has further increased during 2025. The IBTS operates within an establishment ceiling of 567 whole time equivalents. This includes 27 additional posts to support the increases in IBTS service delivery that were sanctioned in December 2024 by the Department of Health.

If the national blood supply falls below a certain level a number of steps are taken. The Senator mentioned the pre-amber alert, whereby the IBTS writes to hospitals regarding restricting issues of blood and asking hospitals to reduce their stock holding. This allows the IBTS to more effectively allocate the national supply of blood. The Minister for Health will be alerted if the alert status changes to amber. An amber alert means that elective surgeries requiring donor blood support are cancelled and hospitals are advised to reduce blood usage under the national transfusion advisory group red cell and platelet shortage plans. The IBTS has never issued an amber alert and every effort is made to ensure this continues.

On 15 October, the IBTS issued an appeal for immediate public and donor support to collect more than 12,000 blood donations over the next four weeks to help boost the national blood supply, as current supplies are under three days across most blood groups. This is an issue and I acknowledge the Senator's concerns about this. The IBTS has robust blood shortage mitigations, which include optimising attendance at clinics, increased media and social media, additional targeted text messaging of donors, running multiple additional clinics and having longer opening hours. To support increased collections in response to the appeal, additional Sunday clinics were offered on Sunday 19 October at D’Olier Street in Dublin, St. Finbarr’s Hospital in Cork, Dunboyne in Meath, and Waterford city.These additional Sunday clinics collected an additional 0.7 day's supply overall. I will come back to the Senator with the rest of the reply.

Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)
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The Minister of State said that the IBTS has not looked for extra funding since 2023. There is still a problem in the sense that we went to a critically low level last week. I raised this last week and I ended up doing an interview on the radio and issuing a press release. Since then three people signed up, including some colleagues. That was just because of me coming out and talking about it.

We definitely need to look at the age. Why is the average age 46 if people can donate from the age of 18? Should we look at increasing the age limit above 65? We need to educate people on how one donation can save up to three lives; it is key. We need to have more clinics. Right now, 15 counties do not have clinics for the next 15 days, yet we are critically low on blood. Something is not adding up.

I will give examples of the type of text messages I received after donating blood:

Linda, thank you for donating blood in Trim. Donations made have helped patients throughout the country.

Another one said:

Linda, thank you for donating blood. Your donation has just been issued to Tallaght hospital.

Another said:

Thank you for donating blood. It has been issued to Clonmel.

I always believe that giving a present is much nicer than receiving one. There is nothing better than giving blood and getting a message like those that lets you know you have impacted on someone's life and perhaps saved them.

Jennifer Murnane O'Connor (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I totally agree with the Senator. The increase in demand is driven in part by the success of the recent investment in expanding the surgical and health system capacity by delivering better access to care for people. To ensure this demand is met, donor attendance figures are up by 10,283 in the year to date. This is an increase of 8.9% on target. There has been an increase. With the increase in donor recruitment drives, some 11,291 first-time donors were recruited in 2023. This number rose to 11,351 in 2024. I will bring up the Senator's concerns. I also want to express my gratitude to all blood donors who turn up, roll up their sleeves and help us maintain the blood supply, particularly following the IBTS's appeal.

I encourage anyone who is able to donate. They can register their interest at giveblood.ie where they will also find clinic allocations, opening hours and all the other details. The IBTS's number is 1800 731137. I will raise the Senator's concerns about the average age of donors being 46 and the number of counties without an upcoming clinic. It definitely something we need to look into.

I assure the Senator that her issues will go back to the Minister for Health. It is such an important service that saves lives. I thank her for raising such a serious issue.