Dundrum glass roof springs a minor leak

The roof of the State's biggest shopping centre, the Dundrum Town Centre, has sprung a leak, less than five months since it opened.

Torrential rains on Thursday and yesterday revealed a flaw in the glass ceiling of the €650 million centre, which resulted in a small but constant flow of water on to the floor outside the Tesco supermarket in the upper atrium area.

The persistent dripping water was discovered yesterday morning by management at the centre who took the precaution of placing a bucket under the section of leaking roof pending repairs.

More than two litres of water had collected before the leak was repaired yesterday afternoon, a spokesman for the centre said.

The leak is not believed to be due to any structural damage caused to the roof by the recent storms, but is thought to be the result of a small flaw in the seal on the glass ceiling which remained undiscovered until the heavy rains.

"There's not a construction in the world, particularly one of this size, that doesn't have the odd leak," the spokesman said. "This one was quite small and now it's been repaired."

However, he said, it was likely that there would be further leaks in other areas of the centre, because of the size of the complex and the particularly heavy rain.

The 92,000 sq m (more than 990,000 sq ft) shopping centre opened in March with 130 shops and 15 cafes and restaurants, including the glass-surrounded Sky Bar.