The prolonged freeze has resulted in a strain on blood supplies, which could impact on the ability to continue with scheduled elective surgery, the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (ITBS) has said.
The IBTS warned it may not be able to continue to meet hospital demand for blood because of the effect of adverse weather conditions on attendance at blood donation clinics.
Operations director Paddy Bowler said that the sustained shortfall in collection has reduced supply to five days of O positive and just three days of O negative.
"The IBTS has only been able to meet 75 – 80 per cent of our collection targets over the past three weeks and this has put significant strain on the blood supply,” he said.
Mr Bowler said the extended period of bad weather had affected the ability of donors to get to clinics, with shortages across all blood groups predicted for the end of next week
As a result, the IBTS are making special arrangements to collect blood on Sunday in D'Olier Street, Dublin and in five other locations around the country over the weekend.