A state adviser has admitted to keeping and managing three brothels. The brothels were in three Limerick city locations.

Thomas Lyons (56) - with an address at The Warrens, Malahide in Dublin - was a senior engineer from Dublin who offered advice to the government on a major infrastructure project.

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to three charges of operating brothels and living off the earnings of prostitutes.

He was charged with three counts of operating brothels at apartments owned or rented in Limerick between August 2010 and June 2011.

Lyons had been the subject of a two-and-a-half-year garda surveillance investigation, after residents complained about males 'coming and going' from the flats.

He has been remanded on continuing bail.