Irish Examiner view: Fix footpaths to reduce claims

It is incumbent on local authorities to maintain its infrastructure to a high standard. Picture: Denis Minihane

Yesterday this publication revealed the extraordinary sums paid out by a local authority in Cork in personal injury claims over the last four years.

Cork County Council confirmed that €5.6m was paid in compensation related to injuries sustained on footpaths: 233 claims in total made between 2019 and 2022 which amounted to €1.8m in 2019, €1.69m in 2020, €930,000 in in 2021, and €1.25m last year.

To give some perspective, almost €150m has been paid out by local authorities in the country over footpath injuries in a five-year period. 

However, that amount does not include either Cork City Council or Cork County Council, which did not provide figures.

This is an astonishing amount of money, and the number of claims suggest an urban environment which must surely be a serious threat to the citizens using it. 

One issue cited as contributing to the deterioration of pathways around the country was the amount of illegal and dangerous car parking. 

Such parking imposes loads on footpaths which they are not designed to bear.

When those footpaths are damaged as a result it obviously becomes more likely that pedestrians will be injured by the results of that damage: Potholes, broken kerbs, misaligned steps, and so forth. 

It becomes incumbent on local authorities to maintain its infrastructure to a high standard, or else they risk facing more of these personal injury claims.

Those local authorities may count themselves lucky they are not operating in New Zealand, however. 

A drooping street light in Wellington has revealed a fault in all of that city’s street lights, and residents were warned this week that every single street lamp in New Zealand’s capital is at risk of plunging without warning down onto the footpath below.

There were no figures to hand on associated insurance claims at time of publication.