Council paid sex shop €90k to move … across the street

Limerick City and County Council has got its naughty lingerie in a twist after spending €90,000 in a failed attempt to "sex down" a city centre site.

The council gave the money as a ‘goodbye’ payment to the operator of an adult sex shop after the local authority paid €12.5m to Nama for the Opera Centre site where the Utopia shop was located.

The site comprises a bundle of properties in Patrick St and Ellen St covering 50,000 sq metres and is the focus of a plan to rebuild the city centre.