Dublin Corporation and traders on O'Connell Street have reacted strongly to the news that a UK chain of sex shops, Ann Summers, is planning to open an outlet on the street opposite the GPO.
However, a spokesman for the Department of the Environment said there was "nothing in the Planning Act to enable other traders to object to the opening of a shop for whatever type of business the proprietor wishes it to be in".
Dublin Corporation's project manager for the O'Connell Street Integrated Area Plan, Mr Ciaran McNamara, said the corporation could not develop bye-laws against such shops as primary legislation was already in place. "That is anti-democratic," he said, and the corporation would explore every avenue to prevent the shop opening.
Mr McNamara said that in other cities "the likes of a sex shop are associated with the seedier end".
Ann Summers, which specialises in "exotic lingerie and marital aids", has said it would start work next Monday on the site which has been vacated by Shoe Express. Attempts to contact the company last night were unsuccessful.
The chief executive of Clery's, Mr Denis Ryan, said the chain's arrival meant the entire integrated plan for the street was "redundant in terms of time and money if the corporation is unable to control the utilisation of retail sites on the street".
However, the owner of the fast food chain Abrakebabra, Mr Wyn Beere, said he would not object to a sex shop opening next door to his business on O'Connell Street. "I'm a free-thinking man," he said. "I presume it's selling clothing. In today's society you can't really stop that."
In a statement, Dublin Chamber of Commerce called on the local authorities in Dublin to adopt a joint retail planning strategy to guide future planning for retail developments in the city. The chief executive of the Dublin City Centre Traders Association, Mr Tom Coffey, said the issue was that O'Connell Street was Dublin's principal street. "It's totally inappropriate for such a shop to open in such a location." He had written to Ann Summers company asking it to relocate, but had received no reply.
The Irish Family Planning Association has said it will celebrate its 30th anniversary today by selling condoms in its clinics for 5p each, equivalent to a shilling in 1969 when the association was founded. (Additional reporting PA)
