Gardaí have appealed for information after thieves robbed thousands of euros at a play centre run by the 'Share A Dream Foundation' on Tuesday morning in Limerick.

The elaborate break-in, the second in the past two months, was at the charity's all-inclusive play centre.

Its founder Shay Kinsella says it is currently "struggling" to survive.

Two men wearing face masks and carrying an axe and a crow bar can be seen on CCTV cameras from inside the centre shortly after 4.00am.

Image: Facebook/Share A Dream Foundation

The raiders are believed to have cut through a steel security fence at the rear of the centre, before tunneling through a back wall and entering the centre.

Mr Kinsella says it has made him question his raison d'etre.

"The first thing that flashed in front of me was all the kids I've helped - all the little angels that have left us now - you see them on the wall and everything.

"I said 'Do I really need to be doing this anymore' because funding is really, really difficult, we don't get any funding.

"So when we lost the money the last time we were just barely able to recover.

Dreamland at the Share A Dream Foundation | Image: Facebook/Share A Dream Foundation

"We're finding it really difficult to keep going because of stuff like this".

But he adds: "You can't give up because the next time we get another dream for a little kid at this time of the year you just get a good buzz that they're contacting you to make their little dream come true.

"And you move on - but it's different now, cause you're looking over your shoulder now".

Ciara Brolly is 'Share A Dream' project manager.

She says there were pieces of a keypad and electrical boards all over the ground.

"There was glass, which was the bowl that we had - the donation bowl - had been broken.

"They saw that they had tunnelled in through the back.

Image: Facebook/Share A Dream Foundation

"The only way to describe it is 'Escape from Alcatraz' - it was a tunnel, just tunnelled all the way through, right through to the outside."

They had also cut a steel fence with a chainsaw.

"The implements they had - they had axes and hammers and things like that - they just took them and smashed every camera, every lock, everything".

Reporting by David Raleigh