City Hall paid out €4.38 million in compensation claims in 2018

Cork City Council paid out more than €4.38 million on compensation claims and associated legal costs in 2018.

Of that figure almost €2 million was spent on legal costs, while €2.44 million was the total amount of compensation paid out.

The public and employer liability claim figures, which were received by the Echo under the Freedom of Information Act, show 248 claims were received last year, which was up slightly from 237 in 2017. The total number of claims has remained below 300 since 2010.

By the end of the third quarter of 2019 159 claims had been received by Cork City Council, while almost €3.5 million had been paid out - €1.6 million of which is compensation.

€1.2 million has been spent on legal costs this year, and more than €607,500 has been spent on the council’s own legal costs. That’s more than was spent in the entirety of any other year bar 2018 when they shelled out €659,000.

Compensation amounts peaked in 2015, when €4.87 million was paid out by the council. That’s despite the number of claims being higher the year previous as well as the following year.

2014 saw the highest number of claims received by Cork City Council, with 296, however, less than €2.9 million was paid out. Half a million more was spent by the end of September this year - that’s despite just 159 claims received.

The total amount paid out between legal costs and compensation hasn’t dipped below €4 million since 2014. If 2019 figures continue as per the first nine months of the year, it’s highly unlikely that less than €4 million will be spent by December.