An inspector from the Data Protection Commissioner's office will visit the Irish Blood Transfusion Service (IBTS) after a laptop with Irish blood donors' data was stolen in New York.
The laptop contained the details of 171,324 blood donors, as well as the details of 3,294 patients whose blood tests would have been sent by hospitals to the IBTS.
The details of donors and patients on the laptop included their names, addresses, gender, dates of birth and contact phone numbers.
The IBTS said details of people's viral status was also included but was coded. It said the possibility of any third party accessing the personal details was "remote".
"We are investigating at the moment the nature of the information that was taken, but so far we are reassured by the level of encryption used on the laptop," Diarmuid Hallinan, spokesman for the Data Protection Commissioner, said yesterday.
"Hopefully that will mean this information will never make it into the public arena."