Clerys Department Store in Dublin is to lay off 86 workers.

Owners and management of the store have say they have met with employees and their representatives this afternoon.

It was to update on the process to re-open the store, which was forced to temporarily close due to water damage caused by a storm on July 25th.

Managers say that plans to fully refurbish the store "are well underway and management is confident that Clerys will reopen on a stronger than ever platform".

But it adds that due to the extent of damage, it will not be fully operational in the short-term - and as a result 86 employees are to be laid off "on a temporary, short-term basis".

This will be for at least four weeks, they say in a statement.

They add that this will mainly affect people in sales and back-of-house functions but stress that they will remain Clerys’ employees during the lay-off period.

It concludes that their sole focus "is on re-launching Clerys as soon as is practicably possible".