ST Vincent de Paul says it cannot give a date for the reopening of its Dungloe shop following its sudden closure.
Residents in the town say they were shocked to find the popular store locked up just before Christmas.
Questions are now being asked about when trading will recommence.
Dungloe’s St Vincent de Paul outlet has helped raised thousands of euros for the charity over the years. Now though donors are having to leave goods on the doorstep outside.
A source in the town told the Donegal News that a health and safety audit of the premises was carried out in December. The shop was shut a short time later with a formal notice to customers posted on January 10.
A spokesperson for the Raphoe-based North West Region of St Vincent’s said that a fresh appeal for volunteers has gone out and that they hope to have the Dungloe branch operating again in the near future.
No definite date for reopening has been agreed upon at this stage though.
“It is a volunteer-run shop, we don’t have any permanent staff, it’s all volunteers,” they said.
“With the pandemic we got low on volunteers so we have two things going on at the moment.
“The first is the recruitment of new members which ties in with the national appeal.
“The second is that the shop needed maintenance which is taking longer than expected.”
The most important part of the two-pronged plan is finding enough volunteers to run the busy shop, according to St Vincent’s.
“It annoys us that we are in this situation because the people of Dungloe have been great supporters of our shop.
“It’s a shame we are where we are at the moment but as soon as we hear more we will let the public know.”
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