Cork City Council stuck in ‘vicious cycle’ as €790k paid out in compensation claims this year

Almost €790,000 has been paid out by Cork City Council so far this year to compensate people injured on footpaths and roads across the city.

Figures released to The Echo by the local authority show that the council paid out a total of €789,626.41 against 37 claims made between January and August in relation to injuries sustained from its footpaths and roads.

This represents €39,626.41 above the council’s annual footpath replacement budget for 2025, prior to the local authority securing a €4m loan for further upgrade works earlier this year.

Cork City Council is responsible for the maintenance of approximately 2,000km of public footpaths in Cork city, with an estimated cost of €375m to replace the entire network.

Social Democrats Cork South Central TD Pádraig Rice said that this amount of money being spent on compensation is “unacceptable, but unfortunately not surprising”.

“Footpaths in the city have been neglected for years,” said Mr Rice.

“Broken and cracked footpaths are causing huge accessibility issues for so many members of our community.”

“Older people, people with disabilities, and parents with buggies are particularly affected by the poor state of footpaths.

'SERIOUS SITUATION'

“The amount of money being spent on compensation to people who have been injured shows us just how serious the situation is.

“This [near] €800,000 could be used to upgrade several footpaths across the city, instead the council is stuck in a vicious cycle of spending money on compensation because they have failed to invest in vital infrastructure.

“If the council wants to bring down this compensation bill, they must vastly increase the money being spent on footpath repairs and renewals.

“The council cannot continue to be reactive to these issues, footpath renewal should be happening consistently.”

Green Party councillor for the Cork City North East ward Oliver Moran stated that “if you leave footpaths to fall apart, they will become dangerous”.

“It’s not rocket science — if you maintain a road [or footpath], it’ll be safer,” said Mr Moran.

“Yet, consistently, as a council, and central government too, we put more money aside for road maintenance than for footpaths.

“If you look at the spending across wards, it’s roadways that always get prioritised.

“We’ve fought back against that in the North East ward and have consistently put some budget aside for footpath repair.

“From this year, there will be an expanded citywide budget for footpath maintenance too.”

Mr Moran and Mr Rice further highlighted a need for increased central government funding to local authorities for the use of footpath maintenance.

“The national Government makes money available for carriageway maintenance but not the footpaths on either side,” said Mr Moran.

“It’s a deep-seated institutional bias in transport policy that stems from a bygone era when cars were king.”