There has been a call for the Public Accounts Committee to investigate the purchase and operation of so-called 'Robot Trees' in Cork City.
The City Council spent over €355,000euro on five of the 'trees', which use a moss wall to absorb pollution from the air, in August 2021.
A council spokesperson says it refutes any suggestion there's not full transparency around the costs associated with the moss walls, and adds the performance data will be released once the analysis is completed.
Labour representative Peter Horgan says there needs to be more scrutiny of the controversial project:
"I've written to my colleague Alan Kelly TD, who was the Vice-Chair of the Public Accounts Committee. I will be following up with him on this. I believe that the Local Government Auditor needs to take a look at this. We need to understand exactly "What was the process involved?", "Who knew what?" I thought that will come up in a Freedom of Information request, but a lot of documents were refused. We need to open the books on this. The elected counsellors of all parties and none underserve to know 'Who made the decision?" and "Why was the decision made?".
