The owner of Dublin's first cat café has announced the business will close next month.

The Cat Lounge opened in Smithfield in October 2017 and was home to 55 cats, most of whom have been rehomed.

Owner Georgina O'Neill confirmed yesterday that she has struggled to cover the costs of the business and made the difficult decision to close its doors on August 31.

She said she has "enjoyed every minute of it".

"Since we opened on 10th October 2017 we have had major success and have enjoyed every minute of it," Ms O'Neill said.

"We have housed 55 cats from our vets and rescues and rehomed most of them. We have helped raise funds for our associated rescues and have shown people that cats are not to be treated badly but are to be loved and cared for as much as any other animal, we have even converted a few cat haters.

This is what I set out to do, I wanted to change people's mind and I wanted to help the rescues the best way I could.

Ms O'Neill said she has faced "some very big debts" while running the Cat Lounge.

Unfortunately, cats alone in a business is not enough to cover costs and I have suffered some very big debts trying to keep going, telling myself that it will get better. It hasn’t gotten better, and I have had to make the very hard decision to close Cat Lounge.

She thanked the café's staff and customers as well as the rescues and vets she worked with, adding she hopes to open another cat café in the future.