The director of Dundrum Town Centre in Dublin has said a number of retailers at the centre may not be able to operate full opening hours when they reopen.
Don Nugent is Centre Director for Dundrum Town Shopping Centre and during an interview on RTE, he said that a shortage of staff could impact upon trading hours.
At present, some retailers and stores are looking to recruit staff ahead of the big reopening and while Mr Nugent believes there’s a lot of pressure on, he's confident that the jobs will be filled.
However, there could be "a few weeks of unsettlement" in terms of opening hours as these positions wait to be filled.
When asked about a recent report that a staff shortage will impact opening hours, Mr Nugent said: "On the night of the announcement, we sent out a reopening pack to all of our store managers and we had a call with them on Wednesday of this week where we talked about this.
"The pressure is on to recruit, it's a very short window for retailers and restaurants to recruit. We anticipated that there would be a lot of pressure on but yesterday, we had 6,000 people looking at our jobs section on the website. It's really taking up, so while there's a lot of pressure on, the jobs are being filled very quickly. In fact, we're now getting some of our retailers asking us to take the jobs adverts down because they're being filled.
"However, it has put pressure on and it will mean that for a number of weeks, we may not be able to have all of our tenants doing full trading hours.
When asked about the departure of former staff members from the stores in Dundrum, Mr Nugent said that some non-Irish nationals may have returned home, while others may have taken jobs in offices where they felt they needed to work.
The retail boss added that he is very confident that any disruption to any stores' opening hours will be temporary and that it "would just be a few weeks of unsettlement."
In terms of reopening, from Monday, the retail industry will receive a massive boost when click and collect services resume, while in-store by appointment only shopping is bound to please shoppers.
Outdoor retail can also recommence from May 10.
