Five new 'robot trees' will be officially unveiled at the launch of a new Air Quality Strategy in the city this morning.
Five of the controversial air filters were unveiled earlier this week, generating debate as to whether the €350,000 price tag for one year is a sensible use of the city's resources.
The City Council have defended the cost saying the CityTrees will combat fine dust particle pollution annd other pollution associated with traffic pollution.
However UCC atmospheric scientist Dean Venables has labelled the initiative a waste of money and says the local authority should focus on reducing emissions in the first place.
Speaking to RedFM News, Thomas Mc Hugh from Cork Chamber says while the robot trees alone won't solve the problem, they have generated considerable debate.
"The important thing is that the whole of the city is talking about air quality in Cork city centre.
"I think that investments like this are supposed to spark that debate - of course they're supposed to have a functional dimension in terms of monitoring and what they actually do as a unit.
"It's essential that intensity of scrutiny, intensity of debate and intensity of the importance of the issue is brought to the fore."
