Cork councils paid out almost €8.5m in public liability claims last year

CORK City Council and Cork County Council paid out a combined total of more than €8.47m in public liability claims and the associated legal costs in 2022 it has been disclosed in a report of the National Oversight and Audit Commission (NOAC) on the performance of local authorities nationwide last year.

The NOAC report gives assessments of the performance of the country’s 31 local authorities across a range of indicators including the turn around time for social housing, the response time for fire crews to get to a fire scene, the amount of kilometres of local and regional roads resurfaced or resealed.

In the report issued at the end of last week, the Commission disclosed that Cork City Council had one of the highest per capita total cost for public liability claims of all the country’s local authorities.

The per person total of €18.58 well above the national average of €11.31 and was only behind County Louth where the per capita cost of public liability claims was €19.25 in 2022 and Dublin City Council which had a per capita cost of €23.48.

€18.58 PER CITIZEN

When contacted to contacted by The Echo to confirm the total paid out in damages and legal costs in respect of public liability claims made last year, a Council spokesperson said: “The total cost of claims settled in 2022 was €4,131,504.97.

“The population of the City in 2022 was 222,333, which gives a per capita figure of €18.58.” 

The spokesperson confirmed that the majority of the claims were in respect of personal injuries and material damages, for instance the damage to cars caused by potholes.

The Echo also sought confirmation of the sum paid by the authority in respect of public liability claims in 2022 but there was no response from Cork County Council.

According to the NOAC report, the council’s per person total was €12. The population of Cork County (excluding the city’s population of 222,333) was 358,898. This means that the Council paid out approximately €4,341,876 in total for public liability claims and associated legal fees.

The NOAC was established in 2014 and this year’s report is the ninth Performance Indicator Report, in relation to its function of scrutinising local authority performance against relevant indicators.

This report has evolved since the first report in 2014 and this year NOAC is reporting on 44 indicators under 11 headings.

Cllr Oliver Moran of the Green Party said that it would be necessary to examine the origin of claims in order to start reducing them.

“The Green Party group have asked in the past about the number of claims related to trees, for example,” said Cllr Moran. 

“Prior to 2019, there were numerous calls to remove and cut back trees on the basis of supposed danger. In fact, just four claims were made in relation to trees in the five years before then.

“One claim in 2014 and three in 2015.

He suggested that one cause of the claims might be faulty footpaths where, after after works on other matters such as laying pipes or cables, there had been poor reinstatement.

“If that was the case, then those areas should be the target for focused investment in infrastructure under the city's charge."