The board said that while a study done in 2004 on behalf of the IBTS showed that the impact of electric fields from the nearby Luas on the equipment used at the National Blood Centre in James Street Hospital was "acceptable", the investigation should be repeated every two years "to ensure there is no material change to radiation levels".

A new study will be completed this year.

The Luas line to Tallaght runs within feet of the back of the National Blood Centre.

Last year when the 800m Luas finally began running, the medicines board became concerned that radiation levels and vibrations from passings trams could adversely affect the sophisticated computer equipment the blood centre uses to process blood products. It feared that highly detailed computer readings could be put out of kilter and told the IBTS to address the issue.

In 1997, the report of the tribunal of inquiry into the many problems at the Blood Transfusion Service Board (since renamed the Irish Blood Transfusion Service) recommended that the Irish Medicines Board carry out two inspections a year on the operations of the IBTS and report on these inspections every year to the Department of Health.

The board's concerns about the impact of the Luas was detailed in its eighth annual report which was presented to the Tanaiste and health minister, Mary Harney, last month.

The report is also highly critical of the manufacturing process used at the IBTS's premises in Cork, the Munster Regional Transfusion Centre.

The board said that during inspections in 2004 it had found a number of "major deficiencies" in manufacturing practices in Cork. In particular, it said that control and operation of the irradiator, used to irradiate blood, was "not compliant" with required standards.

On the premises in Cork, the report said that they were "in a bad state of repair".

While the board welcomed the building of an interim facility in Cork as well as the upgrades and refurbishment, it said it "considered essential that replacement of the MRTC's existing premises be expedited".

A spokesman for the IBTS, however, said that the IBTS had forwarded detailed proposals for a new premises to the Department of Health but has received no reply.