Watch: Lord Mayor of Cork challenged by rough sleeper over €350,000 'robot trees'

A woman who claimed to be a rough sleeper accused the Lord Mayor and the City Council of not caring about people sleeping on the streets

The Lord Mayor of Cork, Colm Kelleher, with Frank O'Flaherty and Donal Scanlon at the launch of Cork City Council's Innovative Air Quality Strategy 2021-2026 today. Mr Kelleher said the devices will be trialed for 12 months and if deemed successful, more could be deployed. Photo: Larry Cummins

The Lord Mayor of Cork was challenged by a rough sleeper over the €350,000 spend on the controversial ‘robot trees’.

A woman who claimed to be sleeping rough confronted city councillor Colm Kelleher at the official launch of three of the CityTree devices on St Patrick’s St and said: “We have no houses but these cost how much?