Council to vote on €20m loan to repair footpaths and ‘revitalise’ Cork city

Members of Cork City Council are due to vote on Monday evening on the approval of a €20m loan facility to be used for footpath repair and city-centre revitalisation, with each city ward to benefit from an initial allocation of €800,000.

The first €4m of the loan, which has already been taken into account in the 2025 budget, will be drawn down this year and will be used for footpath renewal.

A spokesperson for the council said the balance of the loan, €16m, “will be drawn down when funding becomes available to service” the portion of the loan relating to that balance.

Fianna Fáil city councillor for the South Central ward, Seán Martin, said the first tranche of funding would be used to address the city’s dilapidated footpaths.

“The initial €4m has already been ringfenced for footpath renewal, and that will be decided and spent by the councillors to the tune of €800,000 per ward,” he said.

“We would be hopeful of receiving some matching funding from central Government, and then, going forward, we would be able to draw down the additional funding once we have identified how we will be able to pay for it.”

Compensation claims 

According to data that was obtained by The Echo last year following a freedom of information (FOI) request, between 2014 and 2024, Cork City Council paid out more than €12m in compensation claims relating to footpaths.

Workers’ Party councillor Ted Tynan, who was left “winded and bleeding” after a fall on a footpath last year, said the money paid out in compensation would have been better spent fixing the footpaths in advance rather than having to compensate people belatedly.

He added that, in his opinion, compensation figures only showed a fraction of the number of people affected, saying: “Loads of people who fall on footpaths don’t claim anything for it at all.

“I fell on the footpath and I wouldn’t be making a claim for it — but for people in their 60s, 70s, 80s, it still has a huge impact on them even if they don’t make a claim,” Mr Tynan said.

Mr Martin said the €20m loan would help to fund a multi-annual programme of footpath renewal and city centre revitalisation.

“It won’t all happen in one year, this will be a two, three, four-year programme.

“But we said at last year’s budget meeting that we start the process, and the process has now started,” he said.