'We will not have the actions of others impact our livelihoods' - Lidl staff to be redeployed after looting incident

Lidl supermarket on Fortunestown Lane in west Dublin, after a digger was reportedly used by looters to gain access to the store Photo: Chai Brady /PA Wire

Amy Molloy

Lidl has confirmed that 30 staff members will be redeployed to other stores in the Dublin area after a branch in Fortunestown, Tallaght was looted and damaged on Friday night.

A meeting was held this morning and a Lidl spokeswoman said the actions of others will not "impact the livelihood of our hard-working team."

"On behalf of the Store Manager Ruth and her team we would like to thank everyone for their kind words in the aftermath of this incident. The team are genuinely blown away by the swell of support from, not just the community that they serve daily, but from right around the country," the spokeswoman said.

A digger was used to smash into the supermarket on Friday, causing the building to partially collapse. Nobody was injured as the store was closed at the time.

A Centra store in the Tallaght area was also broken into on the same night, while six cars were also set on fire in the Jobstown area, in what was a chaotic night in west Dublin.

Armed gardaí had to be deployed in the area. A uniformed patrol in a jeep was sent to the scene but had difficulty accessing the location because of heavy snow drifts.

The gardai attempted to approach the supermarket on foot but immediately came under attack from the growing gang of looters.

Councillor Cathal King said that those involved give a bad name to the Tallaght community.

"Everyone I know that has seen this video is extremely disappointed. It's a small minority of the community that's making us all look bad."